Lim Chae-Woong’s contract has expired

Calcutta: The situation is strikingly similar here.

With a slew of international events in the offing, if the Indian cricket team is left without a foreign coach, our archery team is no different. The archers, with a temporary arrangement in place, are bracing themselves for the 44th World Archery Championship to be held in Leipzig, Germany (July 7-15).

Since South Korea’s Lim Chae-Woong’s contract with the Sports Authority of India (SAI) expired last April, no effort has been made to get a new coach or renew his contract. Another Korean, Mun Baek Woon, has been given the “interim charge”. Under him, India had participated in the Doha Asian Games and the world championships.

With less than a month to go for the world meet, the archers appear baffled.

“It’s always good to have a permanent coach. Without that it is difficult to give your best. In a short-term arrangement, communication becomes a major problem. By the time we establish a rapport, a new face comes into the picture,” India’s No.1 archer Tarundeep Rai, who represented India at the Athens Olympics in 2004, told The Telegraph.

Lim, by the way, is in charge of the Tata Archery Academy. Ask Lim, who incidentally coached the team in last edition of the world meet in Madrid (2005), about this year’s performance and he says it’ll be “tough”.

“Till now we don’t have a coach… it’s tough to predict about the performance,” he says. Ask him whether he’s hopeful of getting back the post and he gives a mono-syllabic “no comments”. But adds: “I’m happy coaching TAA.”

Incidentally under Lim’s tutelage, Indian men’s team made history, bagging the silver medal in the world championship in Madrid (2005). The women’s team finished fourth.

India No. 2 Rahul Banerjee and former world no.1 Jayanta Talukdar, by the way, are TAA products. Tarundeep, on the other hand, is from the Pune-based Army Sports Institute (ASI) — Army’s centre for ‘Mission Olympics’ programme.

The Archery Association of India (AAI) however does not believe in permanent coach theory.

“We don’t need a John Wright or a Greg Chappell… There has never been a permanent coach for the Indian archers.

“We depute coaches according to the composition of the team… Even it can be all the three Koreans (Lim, Chae Hong Gi and Mun) working together,” senior vice-president of AAI Paresh Nath Mukherjee explained.