AFP

New Delhi, Sep 18: Former Olympian Maharaj Krishan Kaushik was on Wednesday appointed India's new field hockey coach for a two-year term, ending months of suspense over the job.

Kaushik, 53, was named in a media release by the ad hoc committee running Indian hockey to succeed Joaquim Carvalho, who quit in March after the former champions failed to qualify for the Beijing Olympics.

Kaushik was a playing member of the national squad when India won the last of their eight Olympic gold medals at the Moscow Games in 1980.

Currently the national women's coach, Kaushik handled the men's team in 1998 when India won the Asian Games gold in Bangkok, its only major triumph in the last decade.

Kaushik, who will remain coach till the 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou, China, is expected to revive the country's dwindling fortunes in what is still India's national sport.

India did not play in the Olympics for the first time when they were beaten by Britain in a qualifying tournament for Beijing in March.

Kaushik's appointment comes during a tumultous period in Indian hockey after the Indian Olympic Association sacked the sport's administrators in April after an official was embroiled in a cash-for-selection scandal.

Australian hockey legend Ric Charlesworth quit his post as the Indian team's technical advisor in July and flew back home, reportedly unhappy with the way the sport was run.