Charlesworth to land in December

The Sports Ministry has already given its green light and the Sports Authority of India is pitching in to make the most of his availability.

However, the final details of his contract will be worked out in the next few weeks. In any case, Charlesworth with his existing commitments with New Zealand Cricket—he is working as its high-performance manager—will not be able to start his new assignment before mid-December, said a source.

Charlesworth’s job profile in India will include assessing and redesigning the structures, methods and plans to put things in place for India to succeed in their campaign for World Cup 2010, the Commonwealth Games 2010 and the Olympic Games 2012. The legendary coach will also be advising the present coaching staff, giving his inputs, where necessary, in the lead-up to the Olympic qualifying tournaments next year.

The details of his brief will be worked out once Charlesworth arrives in the Capital in December but before that, all his job modalities will be finalised and presented before the FIH’s Executive Board early next month when its office-bearers visit New Delhi between November 5 and 11. The Executive Board is slated to meet between November 9 and 11.

Meanwhile, sources also confirmed that Charlesworth will not interfere with the coaching style of Joaquim Carvalho, who led the team to its Asia Cup victory in Chennai recently. Even the coach himself had recently said that Charlesworth had, while assuring all help to him, indicated that he will not come in the way of his coaching.

In any case, hiring such a high-profile personality will not only help revive Indian hockey but also take the game to a higher echelon, said a former player. This, as he said, is the need of the hour, particularly after the Sports Ministry downgraded hockey from its priority list early this year.