Rattled by the furore over India’s failure to qualify for the Olympics, the Sports Ministry on Monday sought to put an end to the cold war between the IHF and Technical Advisor Ric Charlesworth by assigning a specific role for the Australian great.

The Australian legend had been roped in by the International Hockey Federation (FIH) to revive Indian hockey but no clear role had been assigned to him till now. But the Santiago debacle forced the Sports Ministry and the IHF to sort out the issue as Charlesworth’s absence in Santiago had raised a few eyebrows.

After a high-level meeting involving Sports Ministry Secretary SK Arora, Joint Secretary I Srinivas, SAI Director General Ratan Wattal, IHF chief KPS Gill and secretary K Jothikumaran, it was decided that Charlesworth would be entrusted with the charge of the development teams such as the under-19 and under-21 squads and not the men’s senior side. “We do not want any ambiguity when the proposal is sent to Charlesworth. He will work with the coaches to groom the under-19 and under-21 teams for the Junior Asia Cup and World Cup. He will also work with the women’s senior team who will play the Olympic qualifiers next month,” a ministry source said.

“The period of mourning is over. We have to ensure that the players do not get weighed down by the debacle,” the source added.

The source said that the Ministry did not want to let the services of a person like Charlesworth go waste and would keep a tab on whether the IHF was implementing the Aussie’s plans.

It was concurred at the meeting that the FIH’s threat that the 2010 World Cup may be withdrawn from India was only an ‘arm-twisting tactics’ by the FIH to get the ‘Promoting Indian Hockey’ on the right track. On the one-year contract to be offered to Charlesworth, with provision for an extension, the Ministry said they could not provide any additional benefits to him. “We cannot discriminate between other foreign coaches and Charlesworth. So the other benefits would be provided to him by the IHF,” he said.

The Ministry also made it clear that the air ticket provided to Charlesworth to come to India from Perth was given by the IHF.

The meeting began without Charlesworth but it was gathered that the IHF was meeting the Australian later in the night.

After the meeting, Gill said: “We had a pleasant meeting but this is not the place to discuss the details. We will tell you later.”

Not acceptable
Charlesworth, however, said he would not like to coach only the junior sides. “Nothing has been communicated to me as yet but I have not come here for that,” he said.

“I have met them today and will again meet them tomorrow,” he said. On his contract, he said: “It has not been finalised.”