Hockey India announces to exclude two players out of 20th Sultan Azlan Shah – Hockey Update
Hockey India (HI) has decided not to include the World’s Number nine Sardara Singh and India’s drag-flick expert Sandeep Singh in the team squad for the upcoming 20th Sultan Azlan Shah Cup in May.
This decision was taken due to their uninformed absence from the national training camp that began on March 15 at the Major Dhyan Chand National Hockey Stadium in New Delhi. They did not report to the camp due to their current involvement in the Belgium
League.
HI has also ruled them out of the two-day trials that begin on April 4. Under these trials, the players will be shortlisted from 55 to 33 that will later participate in the final trials to commence on April 18-19.
HI’s Secretary General, Narinder Batra said, “We are not considering Sandeep and Sardara for the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup as they failed to attend the national camp. Only those players who have reported for the camp are eligible for the final trials.”
In addition to the fact that they did not intimate their absence for the National camp, the two players showed an unprofessional attitude towards the governing body, HI. They went off to play the foreign league without obtaining an NOC from the Federation.
Batra continued by saying, “That calls for disciplinary action. If we allow them to appear in the trials then we will be setting a wrong precedent.”
As mentioned above, strict actions are to be taken against the two Indian hockey stars for which a committee has been called. This organised committee will comprise of three members that will be headed by Pargat Singh. They will decide about the future of
the two players after not showing up the camp.
HI is now focused towards the Monday trials that have been forced by the Sports Authority of India (SAI). The trials are being conducted in order to meet SAI’s stated cap for the number of players for the National camp.
The absence of these two brilliant hockey players may turn out unfavourable for the Indian National team because the ace drag-flicker and the best defender will not be there to support their less-experienced players.
The World’s seven best teams will feature in the Azlan Cup starting from May 5 to 15 in Ipoh, Malaysia. There will be tough competition with the strong contenders, especially their arch-rival Pakistan. The Malaysian and the Asian Games 2010 Champions are
found with good preparations for the event but India will be short of two strong squad members.
It will be interesting to see what impact the loss of the two players will have on the Indian squad during the tournament.
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