Melbourne, Sep 30 (IANS) Ric Charlesworth, whose tenure with Indian hockey ended abruptly in a controversial manner, is the new coach of the Australian men's hockey team.
Charlesworth had quit as technical adviser of the Indian hockey team after a fall-out with the officials of the ad hoc committee of the Indian Olympic Association as well as Union sports ministry in July.
Charlesworth, a former Australia captain who guided his country's women's team to gold medals at the Atlanta and Sydney Olympics, will take over from Barry Dancer, who ended his seven-year tenure after the Beijing Games.
'The team changes all the time and the team which played in Beijing will never play together again,' Charlesworth said.
'The job really is about building a new team and only a handful of the players playing now will be under 30 at the next Olympics.'
Charlesworth, as coach of the women's team from 1993-2000, transformed it into world-beaters, winning four Champions Trophies and two World Cups. But the highlight was back-to-back Olympic gold medals in Atlanta and Sydney.
Charlesworth, who had expressed his willingness to coach the Indian team, was without a contract initially as technical adviser of the team. He was then given a one-year contract, without specifying his role, but he could not adjust to the Indian bureaucratic set-up.
He shot off a letter to the sports ministry in July seeking clarification on his role and also asking for the clearance of his dues. Enraged sports administrators shown him the door.
Charlesworth captained Australia for seven years from 1977-1984 and played at four Olympics.
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