Who is Joshua Burt? All you need to know about hockey match official

Joshua Burt acted as the coach of the Australian women’s team in the Bollywood movie Chak de India.

The Indian men’s hockey team faced a gutting 3-2 loss to Germany in the semi-final clash at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Craig Fulton’s side missed experienced defender Amit Rohidas, who was sent off in the win over Great Britain in the quarter-final.

Hockey India tried to appeal Rohidas’ red card and wanted it overturned in time for the semi-final, but it was denied. It turns out that the reason why the decision was upheld was because of the suspension letter penned by official Joshua Burt.

It was Burt, acting as a technical delegate at the Paris Olympics, who wrote the letter urging the Olympic Committee to uphold the suspension and bar Rohidas from playing against Germany. Burt has quite a history with Indian hockey and a lot of experience in the sport.

What has Joshua Burt achieved in his career?

Even though Joshua Burt was not able to make it big as a hockey player at the professional level, he has been involved with the sport for over two decades in coaching or managerial roles. His first major tryst with the sport was as the team and communications manager for Hockey Victoria.

He worked for four years in the role of helping select the teams and arranging tournaments at the state level for the different teams. In 2007, Burt managed to bag a role as the competition manager for Hockey Australia. He worked for four years in that role, helping organize different competitions for the Australian hockey team and arranging their participation in different tournaments around the world.

On top of this, he has also worked as a hockey coach for many years throughout his career. From 2005 to 2014, he worked as the coach for the Mentone Women’s Hockey Club in Australia. He was responsible for coaching players from different age-groups. He also became the coach of the Footscray Hockey Club from 2014–2016, helping train people of all ages.

He even worked as the coach for the Men’s Mentone Hockey Club from 2018 to 2023. But, Burt has earned most of his recognition working at the international level. He has been a technical delegate for the International Hockey Foundation (FIH) from June 2011 to the present, working in the role for three different Summer Olympics editions.

Which Indian film did Joshua Burt appear in?

Even though he’s majorly involved in a coaching or management role in hockey, Joshua Burt has acted in Bollywood in the past. Indeed, he was cast in a role in the hit Shah Rukh Khan film ‘Chak De India.’

Burt is the coach of the Australian women’s team, which the Indian side meets in the final in the movie. He got the opportunity as part of Black Cat Film Productions, a company that also helps produce Bollywood movies. That was Burt’s only tryst at acting and hockey fans with good memories might remember him playing a small part in the hit film.

ALSO READ: A lookback at India’s victory in men’s hockey bronze medal match at Tokyo Olympics 2020

Jason Burt’s controversies with Team India

Jason Burt has over a decade of experience working as a technical delegate in major hockey competitions. The role of a technical delegate is to be on the pitch during matches and ensure matches are run smoothly. The delegate interacts with team managers, benches and umpires when it comes to contesting key incidents and ensuring that any controversy is resolved.

He was a part of the match between India and Great Britain at the Olympics. Rohidas was sent off in the second quarter for what the referee judged to be an intentional and harmful foul, but the Indian hockey federation hoped that it would get overturned through an appeal.

But, it was Burt himself who in his report wrote that Rohidas deserved to be suspended for the semi-final clash and that India would play against Belgium with a squad of 15 players. As a result, the Indian team were quite weakened for the game and ended up suffering a gutting loss, even after taking a 1-0 lead. The Indian hockey team will now play for the bronze medal in the clash against Spain on August 8, aiming to replicate their heroics from the Tokyo Olympics.

For more updates, follow Khel Now on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram; download the Khel Now Android App or IOS App and join our community on Whatsapp & Telegram