Indian national hockey team for Asian Champions Trophy to be selected Friday – Hockey Update
The Indian national hockey team is to be announced on this Friday, August 12 for the upcoming Asian Champions Trophy which is going to be played from September 3 in Ordos, China.
Some of the top Asian sides like South Korea, Malaysia India and Pakistan, the Asian Games gold medallist, will compete for the inaugural title. The Indian team will likely fly to China on August 28 while the players’ names will be sent to Chinese embassy
by August 17 as almost ten days are required for the process to receive a visa.
As eighteen of the athletes will be selected for the championship with some reserves, the trials will also provide selectors the opportunity of selecting a pool of 24 players on the recommendation of Michael Nobbs, the coach of the Indian national hockey
team, who has been campaigning the idea since he took the charge as a national coach.
It is of the view of SS Grewal that the Madras Engineer Group (MEG) turf be used to conduct the trials as the SAI surface is not satisfactory.
"If you ask me, the trial sessions will have to be at MEG. I will make this recommendation. In any case, we are planning to visit MEG frequently," SS Grewal, chief of the Hockey India’s coaching committee, stated his views about the training camp.
Moreover, four of the five insurgent players including Arjun Halappa, Sandeep Singh, Sardar Singh and Adrian D’Souza also joined the camp on the first day and participated in the training sessions.
Meanwhile, Jugraj Singh and Clarence Lobo, the assistant coaches have returned to sight to join the second phase of the national hockey probable’s camp in Bangalore after the approval from Sports Authority of India (SAI) as initially their names were not
in the list of Hockey India (HI), which was submitted to the SAI, that shocked the two coaches a week ago.
Inderjit Singh Pabla, Project Officer (Teams) of SAI New Delhi, stated that he is not responsible for the mix up situation regarding the list as he approved it in the best of the SAI’s interests after receiving from the body.
“Initially HI sent a letter without Jugraj and Clarence’s names. After they joined the camp, HI sent another letter seeking SAI funding for those two. Baljit, Riaz, Kariappa and S S Grewal’s names are in the ‘HI funded’ category. They will continue to be with
the campers at SAI but their expenses will be met by HI,” Inderjit Singh further added to his comments.
It will be interesting to see which players will represent India at the prestigious tournament this year.
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