Africa-Press – South-Africa. Amid South African hockey’s financial crisis, South Africa’s interim hockey coach, Cheslin Gie, is hesitant to apply for the full-time men’s hockey coach position.
On Tuesday, the South African Hockey Association (Saha) confirmed the shock withdrawal of the SA men’s national team from the esteemed FIH Pro League season for 2023/24, despite having qualified for it.
According to Saha, financial issues were the reason for the decision to pull out as they needed to pay R10 million by 16 January.
Saha couldn’t afford the amount and it resulted in South Africa being replaced by Ireland in the prestigious Pro League.
Gie took over from long-time coach Garreth Ewing in November, following a fourth-place finish in the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.
Gie then took South Africa to win the eight-nation FIH Nations Cup hosted in Potchefstroom, which guaranteed them a place in this season’s Pro League.
South Africa also finished bottom of Group A in last month’s FIH Hockey World Cup in India.
Saha will be in need of a permanent coach soon, with the job application set to be advertised.
“I was only interim coach for the Nations Cup and the World Cup and there should be an advert coming out soon for the new national coach,” Gie told News24.
“I’m just hesitant as I’m not sure how I can work with people that I can’t trust. To me, that’s sad and shows you where we (Hockey SA) are at the moment.
“How are we going to move forward from this, especially as a coach of this side.”
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Gie was shocked and outraged over the disconnect shown by Saha over their financial issues and hopes for better communication from here on.
“There was just a disconnect and we should put our players first before we put anybody else first,” he said.
“As a coach, I make sure that they’ll be taken care of before I’m worrying about anything else. So I think early and better communication is vital as we could’ve fought this financially.
“It’s strange that none of us were consulted. We have some really good, talented players in the squad at the moment. I think hockey is not very good place.
“It stifles opportunities for these guys to play at the highest level and to become even better. All we want is to create and take this opportunity, but now that’s been taken away because of financial reasons,” continued Gie.
“I understand it’s a lot of money, but my question would be: ‘Had they exhausted all the avenues?’ If we’d spoken to the minister of Sport, businesses and companies to come on board and try and assist us.
“If we had gone, it would’ve been ideal preparation for the team to go to the Olympics (in Paris next year).”
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