HI ropes in foreign coach for women's team

New Delhi: Former Australia coach and Olympian Neil Hawgood has been appointed as the head coach of India’s senior women’s hockey team, the Hockey India (HI) said in a release on Monday.

The HI has also appointed Ben Dascombe as physiologist of the women's team.

Hawgood and Dascombe, who worked together for more than two years at the Western Australian Institute of Sport (WAIS) and helped Women Hockey team of WAIS to win the AHL championship, will be joining the camp of Indian senior women’s team in Bhopal on Tuesday.

Hawgood had coached both men’s and women’s teams of Australia. He was assistant coach to the Australian women's team at the 2006 and 2010 World Cup and at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. He was also assistant coach with the men’s team from 2001 to 2004 at Champions Trophies and coached the Australia A team in a four-Nation tournament in Australia featuring India, Pakistan and Australia.

The 50-year-old aims to make the Indian women’s team a consistent performer at the international level and help it qualify for the 2014 women’s World Cup. “I want to create an environment where athletes and coaches can see that they want to be a part of what is happening with this programme as we strive to be the best team in Asia, which means we will be getting closer to being a threat on the world stage,” said Hawgood, who scored five goals in seven matches in the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul.

Hockey India secretary general Dr Narinder Batra said Hawgood and Dascombe's appointment is a step towards raising the bar for the senior women’s team. “We believe that with his holistic approach to coaching, our players will know what is needed to be international players and collectively as a team not only on the field but also off the field,” he said.

Hawgood said he watched the India team compete in the junior women’s Asia Cup in Bangkok where they won silver for the first time. “One of the first challenges I see is combining the planning of the junior team along with the senior women team’s goals. With a good number of the juniors in the senior’s squad, this balance will be vital to the progression of the senior team as well as allowing the junior team to prepare for the 2013 junior World Cup,” Hawgood said.