No major changes likely, says IHF chief

NEW DELHI, APRIL 1. The Indian hockey team has discovered its nucleus and there would not be any major changes for the Afro Asian games in the team that won the Prime Minister's Gold Cup hockey tournament in Dhaka recently.

``There would not be any major changes in the team that won the PM's Gold Cup in Dhaka,'' K. P. S. Gill, president of Indian Hockey Federation, told PTI in an interview. ``There will only be minor changes arising out of fitness and form,'' he said.

``Unfortunately, our penalty corner conversion was much better in Cairo and Sydney,'' he said adding the federation was trying to rope in Ranjit Singh (who had worked on the penalty corner conversion prior to Sydney Olympics).

Gill said coach Cedric De Souza had started off well and was likely to continue till the Athens Olympics in 2004. ``We have two to three important tournaments to assess him before the Olympics,'' he said referring to Afro Asian games, World Cup and Asian games.

Acknowledging, former coach V. Bhaskaran's success with the junior teams, Gill said the federation might again assign him with the juniors.

According to Gill, India has a good pool of youngsters to bank upon.

``Of the 43 youngsters attending the camp in Bangalore, 20 of them are below 21, available for selection for the junior World Cup and also for the Afro Asian games,'' Gill said.

- PTI

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