I still stand by selection calls: David John

Sjoerd Marijne's selection policies of blooding in youngsters while axing a few senior pros came in for a lot of criticism, with the players too expressing their displeasure over it, which eventually led to his ouster from the job.

Seasoned players like Sardar Singh and Ramandeep Singh were dropped from India's Commonwealth Games squad at the expense of rookies Dilpreet Singh and Vivek Sagar Prasad.

Harendra Singh's appointment as the men's coach is likely to signal a shift in the earlier policy, although HI high performance director David John — part of the selection panel — still stands by the selection calls taken him Marijne and him over the last seven months.

"Sjoerd and I agreed on a lot of those selection policies. It was our joint selection procedure, where we wanted to play 32 or 33 players across four tournaments, and then pick our best 18 for the CWG. We still, and I still stand by the belief that we picked the best 18 players, but they couldn't execute well," John said.

"There was criticism for picking only younger players. But there were only two younger players in Dilpreet and Vivek Sagar. All countries pick younger players and give them the exposure so that when the senior players retire, we don't have a massive gap in talent," the Australian added.

But John admitted that there will be a change in player personnel under the new coach.

"Me standing by the earlier selection policy doesn't mean that the group won't change for the next two tournaments. Where we need to change is to execute better in the circle. The players have to realise that their poor execution is certainly a reason for this change," he said.