KARACHI: Roelant Oltmans, the head coach of the Pakistan hockey team, has ended his association with the team after declining to join them in China for the upcoming Asian Champions Trophy (ACT), citing the lack of a long-term contract.
Oltmans, who has been working with the senior team since earlier this year, was scheduled to join the squad directly in Hulunbuir for the tournament, but he pulled out at the last moment.
"Oltmans has notified the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) that he is not available for coaching as he wants a long-term proper contract with the PHF," an official source in the PHF said.
The six-team ACT tournament is scheduled to be held between September 8 and 17.
The PHF source further revealed that Oltmans, who had previously worked as the Indian hockey team's High Performance Director and head coach between 2013 and 2017, was offered an "event-to-event" contract.
"The PHF has been hiring him on an assignment basis due to fund issues, and he was supposed to coach the team during the event in China and then return home," the source said.
"But Oltmans has now made it clear that he can't work on an event-to-event basis, and if the PHF requires his expertise, they need to offer him a long-term contract," the source added.
Adding to the team's woes, it has been reported that captain Ammad Butt is not getting along with the two local coaches traveling with the team to China.
The PHF has been facing a financial crunch for a while now, and the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) has also refused to release funds of 50 million rupees for 27 players and six officials for the ACT.
The PSB, however, stated that it had offered to pay for the air tickets of 19 players and four officials, as the funds being demanded by the PHF were deemed too high.