The men’s and women’s teams responded by releasing a joint statement in which they claimed that the former India coach made the accusation against Manpreet in order to promote his book.
Following the Dutchman’s allegation that Manpreet Singh instructed a young player to underperform during the 2018 Commonwealth Games, the Indian men’s and women’s hockey teams are prepared to sue former coach Sjoerd Marijne and publishing company HarperCollins India in court.
Marijne said that senior pro Manpreet instructed a player to “stop playing well” so that his pals might make the team in his upcoming book, “Will Power – The Inside Story of the Incredible Turnaround in Indian Women’s Hockey.” The men’s and women’s teams responded by issuing a joint statement in which they claimed that the former India coach made the accusation against Manpreet in order to promote his book. “We have gathered to express our profound disappointment in Marijne’s use of our private information and baseless charges. He has taken advantage of our time being coached by him to promote his book at the expense of our reputations.
“This is a blatant breach of trust and his responsibility as a coach. The players added in a joint statement, “It also makes all Indian athletes, like us, feel helpless under such circumstances.
We are currently taking legal action against Mr. Sjoerd Marijne and the disputed book’s publishers, Harper Collins. Both teams agreed that if such an occurrence had actually occurred, Marijne should have brought it to the attention of either Hockey India or his former employer, the Sports Authority of India, which he chose not to do. “We want to jointly question Mr. Sjoerd Marijne about the fact that if any of the alleged incidents occurred when he was in charge, there should have been a record of a complaint made to Hockey India or the Sports Authority of India at the time.
The statement added, “Upon checking with the authorities, we have found no such record of complaint.” The teams claimed that Marijne had questioned the players’ honour by making such baseless and falsified accusations. “The Indian men’s and women’s national hockey teams stand side by side and will defend our integrity, which he has questioned.
The statement read, “Under no circumstances will we permit the integrity of any of our team members to be compromised for anybody else’s personal gain.” “Our country, team, and the sport of hockey are our collective top priorities,” it stated. Marijne led the Indian men’s hockey squad for nine months until being fired as a result of a poor performance at the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games.
Later, he took over the women’s team and led it to an unprecedented fourth-place finish in the Tokyo Olympics in 2016. Marijne did not answer when PTI sought to reach him for comment.
