Following the Dutchman's allegation that Manpreet Singh instructed a young player to underperform during the 2018 Commonwealth Games, the Indian men's and women's hockey teams are prepared to sue former coach Sjoerd Marijne and publishing company HarperCollins India in court.

Marijne said that senior pro Manpreet instructed a player to "stop playing well" so that his pals might make the team in his upcoming book, "Will Power - The Inside Story of the Incredible Turnaround in Indian Women's Hockey."

The men's and women's teams responded by releasing a joint statement in which they claimed that the former India coach made the accusation against Manpreet in order to promote his book.

"We have gathered to express how deeply disappointed we are with how he (Marijne) has used our personal information and made unfounded claims. He has taken advantage of our time being coached by him to promote his book at the expense of our reputations."

"His duty of care as a coach has been completely violated by this. Additionally, it makes us and other Indian athletes feel defenseless under these circumstances "In a group statement, the athletes stated.

We are currently taking legal action against Mr. Sjoerd Marijne and the disputed book's publishers, Harper Collins.

Both teams agreed that if such an occurrence had actually occurred, Marijne should have brought it to the attention of either Hockey India or his former employer, the Sports Authority of India, which he chose not to do.

"We would like to jointly question Mr. Sjoerd Marijne, that if any of the alleged instances occurred while he was in charge, there should be a record of an allegation filed to Hockey India or the Sports Authority of India at the time,"

The statement added, "Upon checking with the authorities, we have found no such record of complaint."

"The men's and women's national hockey teams of India stand side by side and will stand up for our integrity, which he has called into question. The integrity of any member of our team will never be compromised for the sake of anyone else's personal gain because our country, team, and the game of hockey are our top priorities as a group."

Marijne led the Indian men's hockey squad for nine months until being fired as a result of a poor performance at the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games.

Later, he took over the women's team and led it to an unprecedented fourth-place finish in the Tokyo Olympics in 2016.

Marijne did not answer when PTI sought to reach him for comment.