Indian hockey teams lambast former coach Marijne for making accusations against players in his book

Bengaluru (Karnataka)[India], September 17 (ANI): The Indian hockey teams which include both men's and women's teams have issued a strong statement against their former head coach Sjoerd Marijne who has made some serious allegations against the players in his newly launched book titled "Will Power: The Inside Story of the Incredible Turnaround in Indian Women's Hockey".
"We have seen in the press today some disturbing allegations being made by the erstwhile Chief Coach of our teams, Sjoerd Marijne. We have come together to state our deep disappointment in his exploitation of our personal information and false accusations. He has used his time of coaching us for commercial gain to sell his book at the cost of our reputations. This is a complete breach of trust and his duty of care as a coach. It also leads to all Indian athletes like us to feel vulnerable in such situations," written in the joint statement of both men's and women's hockey teams.
The book highlights the experiences of Sjoerd Marijne when he was appointed the Chief Coach of the Indian women's Hockey Team in 2017. Marijne was appointed the chief coach of the Indian women's Hockey Team in 2017 and later, he was given charge of the Men's Hockey Team in September 2017.
"We would like to collectively question Sjoerd Marijne, that if any of the claimed incidences took place under his watch there should be record of an allegation filed to Hockey India or the Sports Authority of India at the time. On checking with the authorities, we have found no such record of the complaint," as per the joint statement.
According to Marijne in 2017 when the Dutchman was the coach of the Indian men's hockey team, he picked a young player to represent India at the Commonwealth Games 2018 in Gold, he was pretty positive about his success as a player but the player failed to perform. Initially, the Dutchman thought that the player was under pressure to perform in a major tournament. But later he got to know that captain Manpreet Singh had allegedly told the player "to stop playing so well".
"The Indian National men's and women's hockey team stand together with each other and will defend our integrity that has been brought to question by him. Our country, team and the sport of hockey are our collective top priority and under no circumstances will we allow for the integrity of any of our team members to be compromised for anyone else's personal gain. We are in the process of pursuing legal remedies against Sjoerd Marijne and the publishers of the book in question, Harper Collins."
In May 2018, Marijne was removed from the position of men's team coach and was re-appointed as the coach of the Women's Hockey and went on to guide the team to a fourth-place finish at the Tokyo Olympics. (ANI)