Kaushik likely to be new hockey coach

The Bangladesh Hockey Federation (BHF) confirmed that Ajay Kumar Bansal will not take the position of coach in the national team as former India hockey chief coach Maharaj Kishan Kaushik is likely to take the job instead.   The hockey federation is preparing to start a national hockey camp with the new coach from the first week of June. With Bansal uninterested in the job, BHF plans to sign the deal with Kaushik within a week. General Secretary of BHF Khwaja Rahmatullah confirmed Kaushik’s interest on Tuesday.   “We will not have Bhansal as our coach as he was not granted leave from his current government job. We are considering Kaushik now. He will be in Dhaka soon to finalise the deal,” said Rahmat. The BHF general secretary said Kaushik’s appointment will be confirmed before the national team’s camp for the upcoming Asia Cup Hockey which is scheduled to begin from August in Malaysia.   Kaushik, who was a member of the gold medal-winning Indian team in the 1980 Moscow Olympics, had coached India to the 1998 Asia gold the first time he was in charge. Kaushik withdrew himself from the Asian Champions Trophy in the mid of 2010 in Korea  pending an inquiry into the sex scandal by a four-member panel.   After two years of being side-lined for sexual harassment charges, Kaushik was reinstated by Hockey India and confined to men’s teams.