Pillay not in team for World Cup qualifiers

By Our Sports Reporter

NEW DELHI, JULY 3. Baljit Singh Dhillon will lead the Indian hockey team in the World Cup qualifiers to be held in Edinburgh, Scotland from July 17 to 30.

The 18-member squad, which shows seven changes from the team that undertook the tour of Malaysia, Australia and New Zealand, was announced by the Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) here on Tuesday.

The team, which will strive for one of the seven qualifying slots for the next World Cup in Kuala Lumpur in March next year, was slated to leave for Milton Keynes on Tuesday night. Prior to the qualifying tournament, the team is scheduled to play a match each against France, Japan and Scotland on July 7, 8 and 10, during its stay in Milton Keynes.

Taking into consideration current form and performance in the camps conducted in Bangalore earlier, a relatively younger lot has been chosen from a pool of 42. In May, the IHF had announced 21 players each for the World Cup qualifiers and the Azlan Shah tournament.

Dhanraj Pillay, who is among the probables for the Azlan Shah tournament, was not selected. According to the chief coach Cedric D'Souza, `his unavailability in the camp' ruled out his selection. Owing to a knee injury, Pillay was forced to miss the camp held in April and May. Regarding the chances in Edinburgh, D'Souza was optimistic. ``We have worked very hard. The federation has done well in terms of getting a sponsor for us. Now it is our duty to perform. It is not going to be easy but we are working very hard to attain our goal.''

S. Thirumalvalavan, Arjun Halappa, Kanwalpreet Singh, Bimal Lakra, Sameer Dad, Paramjeet Singh and Brojen Singh have been brought into the team now. The omissions from the last tour, under D'Souza, are Dinesh Nayak, M.K. Prakash, Tejbir Singh, Inderjit Singh, Jagan Senthil, S.S. Gill and Deepak Thakur.

About the seven replacements, D'Souza said, ``We have chosen players on form. We have also referred to the performance in Moscow (in Samaranch Cup).'' Indian Airlines' Bimal Lakra and Paramjeet Singh of Services were members of the team, which had triumphed in Moscow.

India, which is placed along with Wales, New Zealand and Egypt in Group A, in the Edinburgh tournament, opens its campaign against Wales on July 18. ``Fortunately, we have seen Egypt and New Zealand in the recent past. But we are giving equal respect to all the sides,'' said D'Souza. India had lost 1-2 to New Zealand in a four-match Test series last month.

D'Souza was satisfied with the training and practice itinerary. ``First, we had planned to train in Holland but it would have cost a lot of money. I was expecting to play against sides that play the European format. Still, the schedule should provide us an opportunity to train hard.''

Even in Edinburgh, where the team reaches on July 12, it will get a feel of the turf as it is slated to play Canada and Poland on July 13 and 14, respectively.

Baljit Singh Dhillon, too, was wary of the sides in the fray. ``We have to be careful. We have worked hard on fitness and penalty corner variations. We are hopeful of doing well,'' said the captain.

The first task of the Indian team would be to finish among the top two in its group. Depending on its performance in the championship round league, in which eight teams will be divided into two groups, the seven qualification spots would be decided.

The team: Baljit Singh Dhillon (Capt.), Devesh Chauhan, Jude Menezes, Dilip Tirkey, Kanwalpreet Singh, Lazarus Barla, Arjun Halappa, S. Thirumalvalavan, Baljeet Singh Saini, R. Radhakrishnan, Bimal Lakra, Prajhjot Singh, Gagan Ajit Singh, Daljit Singh Dhillon, Bipin Fernandez, Sameer Dad, Paramjeet Singh and Brojen Singh.

Officials: Cedric D'Souza (coach), C.R. Kumar (asst. coach), Saju Joseph (trainer), Dr. J.P.S. Sidhu (psychologist), Dr. B.M. Parthasarthy (doctor), Mr. N.P. Batra (manager), Narinder Singh (asst. manager) and Dr. P.S.M. Chandran (doctor).

The groupings:

Pool A: India, Wales, New Zealand, Egypt. Pool B: Argentina, Belgium, France, Bangladesh. Pool C: Spain, Chile, Japan, Scotland. Pool D: Poland, Canada, Russia, the U.S.

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