Australian David John has been appointed as the Odisha Director of Hockey. This revealed by the Department of Sports & Youth Services (DSYS), Government of Odisha in its social media handles today. Former High Performance Director of Hockey India, John is reported to have taken the new role since the start of this month.

But the terms and conditions of the appointment are yet to be known. According to a DSYS tweet, John will be leding the hockey programme, creating a curriculum & pathway for the players of the State to excel at the highest level.

John has returned to India two years after he resigned as High-Performance Director of Hockey India. According a report published in the Sportstar, John is currently in Goa alongside the state team competing at the Hockey India Sub-junior Men National Championship.

John is largely credited for playing an active role in improving the fitness levels of the Indian teams and setting the platform for the Indian men hockey teams to win Olympic medal at the Tokyo Olympics.

“For the Indian Men and Women teams to remain strong over the next decade, there needs to be a strong contingent of players from Odisha,” John was quoted as saying. “I will be responsible from talent identification, player development, high performance, coach education, selection of teams, equipping clubs, providing domestic, national and international exposures for Odisha players,” John said.

According to former Indian men hockey team captain Dilip Tirkey, the signing of John was an important one. “Our hockey at the sub-junior and junior level is good, but we are not able to perform at the level we want at the senior level,” said Tirkey, who is currently the chairman of Odisha Hockey Promotion Council and president of Hockey Association of Odisha.

“We have a reputation for hockey in the country but we want to improve even further. For instance, we do not see many drag flickers or goalkeepers from our state. We need to understand why this is so and how we can correct it. This is why we have got a high-performance director in David John. I think he will help our athletes transition from the grassroots to the juniors and finally the senior level,” Tirkey told the Sportstar.

John had tendered his resignation to both Hockey India and Sports Authority of India (SAI) on 18 August 2020 citing health concerns due to the COVID-19 pandemic situation in India.

However, the timing of his resignation had come as a surprise considering the fact that a few days before resigning, John had signed a contract extension with SAI till September 2021.

David John has been a prominent figure in Indian hockey team for the past decade. His association with Indian hockey teams began in 2011, when he was appointed as the physio of the Indian men’s hockey team under the then head coach Michael Nobbs.

During his first stint in India, he was credited with drastically improving the fitness levels of the Indian hockey players. He, however, left his post after a poor showing by the Indian men hockey team at the London 2012 Olympics.

John returned to India in 2016 after being appointed as the High Performance Director of Hockey India after the Olympic Games in Rio. He has, since then, played a pivotal part in the development of hockey in the country and even designed current coaching program of Hockey India.

David John had been in India since the global COVID-19 outbreak and was working from his home in New Delhi during the enforced lockdown. He had been appointed by SAI at a monthly salary of 12,000 dollars (around Rs 8.5 lakh) and he had been working from home in Delhi since the beginning of the lockdown in March 2022.

He resigned as Hockey India HPC Director days after his contract was renewed by Sports Ministry until Sept 2021. But according to those in the know, John put in his papers after he was asked to report to the Hockey India office in Delhi every day as well as make trips to training centres around the country in the middle of the pandemic.