Saturday, May 3, 2008

Malaysia seek gold in Germny

03/05/08

THE National Under-16 hockey team will leave for Ger many today, and their mission is to return with a gold medal form the Four-Nation.
Coach K. Rajan put forward the challenge to his young charges, and they gallantly took it up.
"Its not me, but the players themselves who set the gold target. This is a good sign, as they have started on a positive note," said Rajan.
The juniors will be up against Germany, Belgium and Netherlands in the Four-Nation. For the record, Malaysia were the wooden spoonist last year.
"We only had a few days of training, which was interrupted by the MSSM (Malaysian Schools Sports Council) carnival.
"And from the training sessions held, I noticed that the defense is a little weak, but the midfield and forward-line is promising," said Rajan.
Malaysia will only pay for the flight tickets, while food and lodging is provided by the hosts: "We play a friendly with a German club side, and two friendlies against the German juniors as warm-up before the tournament proper," said Rajan.
FIXTURES -- May 10: Malaysia v Netherlands; May 11: Malaysia v Germany; May 12: Belgium v Malaysia.
MALAYSIA -- Shahrul Azaddin (goalkeeper), Hafizuddin Othman (goalkeeper), Kavin Kartik (captain), Shazrul Imran, Mohamed Nor Aqmal, Zulhairi Hashim, Zahirul Faez.
Firhan Ashari, R. Ramesh, Taufik Hamid, Faiz Helmi, Faridzul Afiq, Shazril Irwan, Haniff Saidin, Fahmi Faiz, Azri Hassan, Fitri Saari, Arief Iskandar.
Coach: K. Rajan; Assistant coaches: Wan Noor Zuhairi, S. Prakash; Manager: Ahmadi Yusoff.

Pakistan ready for battle

03/05/08

LAHORE: An 18-member Pakistan senior hockey team, led by deep defender Zeeshan Ashraf, will leave for Malaysia on May 5 to take part in the Azlan Shah Hockey tournament being played in Ipoh from May 8.
Olympics qualifiers Canada, Argentina, Belgium, New Zealand, India, hosts Malaysia and Pakistan are the participating teams of the event which ends on May 18.On completion of this seven-nation tournament, Pakistan will embark on their European odyssey, with matches in Germany, France and Belgium from May 19 for an extensive preparatory tour in connection with the Olympic Games at Beijing, China, in August next.On the final leg of the tour, Pakistan will take part in the 4-Nation Hockey Tournament to be held at Dublin, Ireland, from June 11-15.The squad: Goalkeepers — Salman Akbar, Nasir Ahmed. Fullbacks — Zeeshan Ashraf (captain), Mohammad Imran (vice-captain), Mohammad Atiq, Kamran Ahmed. Halfbacks — Mohammad Irfan, Mohammad Saqlain, Farid Ahmad, Mohammad Javaid. Forwards — Waqas Sharif, Rehan Butt, Shakeel Abbasi, Mohammad Zubair, Haider Abbas, Waqas Akbar, Shabbir Khan, Shafqat Rasool.The five officials accompanying the team are Khwaja Zakauddin (Chief Coach), Naveed Alam (Coach), Mohammad Faiz (Physiotherapist), Nadeem Lodhi (Video Analyst) and Dilawar Bhatti (Umpire).
The News International

Sandeep back in team

03/05/08
NEW DELHI, May 2: Newly appointed hockey selectors on Friday dropped nine players from the team that played in the four-nation tournament in Australia while including seven junior players for the Azlan Shah tournament in Ipoh from May 8.
Sandeep Singh, who missed India's Olympic qualification campaign, was included while Prabhjot Singh, Wiliam Xalxo, Adrian D'Souza, Ignace Tirkey were left out of the squad. Tushar Khandekar has been named captain of the side.Young drag-flicker Diwakar Ram along with Innocent Kullu, Sameer Baxla, Ranjeet Singh, Cheenya AB, Gurvinder Singh and Mandeep Antil were the juniors who were picked in the 18-member squad."We want the junior players to get a good opportunity to play and not warm benches." Chief selector Aslam Sher Khan said on the inclusion of a bunch of juniors.Asked about the players being left out from the team, Aslam Sher said, "We have not made any major changes in the squad that was picked by the dissolved Indian Hockey Federation for this tour. They had recommended some players to return from Australia while the juniors would have attended the team in Ipoh."Jaswinder Singh, V S Vinay and Ravi Pal are the other three players who will return from Australia.The seven junior players were part of Under-21 squad in the eight-nation tournament in Malaysia last year. Diwakar had emerged as the highest scorer in that tournament.The selectors also decided to send Joaquim Carvalho as the observer for the team while AK Bansal will be the coach."It was decided by the IHF that Bansal would go as coach and Carvalho as observer. We thought it will not be good to stop him from going," Aslam Sher said.The selection committee comprising five Olympians chose the team for the first time after the Indian Olympic Association had dissolved the IHF and named the panel of new selectors.

KPS Gill Slams selection

03/05/08

NEW DELHI, May 2: Despite being suspended by the IOA, ousted IHF president KPS Gill on Friday took a potshot at the new selectors claiming that they had made some "cosmetic" changes to the team he had picked for Azlan Shah tournament beginning on May 8 in Malaysia.
Using the official letterhead of the erstwhile IHF, Gill listed the names of the 18 players announced on Friday by the new panel and said the Aslam Sher Khan-headed committee has changed only two players from the list submitted to the government by his regime.Gill said after a selection committee meeting on April 22, he had sent the names of 11 junior players and seven senior players to the government from which the new panel had substituted goalkeeper Mrinal Chaubey by senior goalkeeper Baljit Singh and Danish Mujtaba had been replaced by another senior player."We had selected 11 junior players and seven senior players from the team in Australia and now it is nine players from the (junior) camp and nine players from the senior team. It is just a cosmetic change. The two junior boys being dropped will mean less exposure to them, in view of the forthcoming Junior Asia Cup being held at Hyderabad in July 2008," the press release sent by Gill said.As he is no longer the head of IHF, Gill's statement came as a surprise and is being seen in the hockey fraternity as a show of defiance.RK Shetty was appointed by the new panel as manager for the tournament on Thursday but interestingly, Gill's list does not include him. Instead, Joaqium Carvalho, who was named observer of the team by the new panel was mentioned as observer-cum-manager by Gill in his list.Indian Olympic Association had sacked Gill on Monday by suspending the IHF and appointing an ad-hoc committee in its place.The "unanimous" decision to suspend IHF was taken at an emergency meeting of the IOA Executive Committee held here following the sting operation which caught secretary K Jothikumaran purportedly accepting bribe to select a player in the national team.The Executive Committee has empowered the IOA President Suresh Kalmadi to appoint the ad-hoc committee.
The Times of India

India Azlan Shah team

03/05/08
The following is the list of Indian Hockey Team Members participating in 17th Sultan Azlan Shah Cup Invitational Tournament being held at IPOH (Malaysia) from 8th May to 18th May 2008:-
Baljit Singh GK, Sardar Singh, P.R. Sreejesh GK, A.B. Cheyanna,
Diwakar Ram, Vivek, Sandeep Singh, S.V. Sunil, Innocent Kullu, Gurwinder Singh Chandi, Sameer Baxla, Tushar Khandekar, Sarvanjit Singh, Shivendra Singh, Ranjeet Singh, Mandeep Antil, Vickram Kanth,
Gurbaj Singh.
Officials
A.K. Bansal Chief Coach, Rajesh Chauhan Coach, M. Ramesh Parmeswaran Asstt. Coach-GK, Srikanth Lyenger Physio, M.V. Mathai
Trainer, Dr. C.S. Jayaprakash Doctor, Parnam Singh Umpire,
H.S. Sokhi Judge, Joaquim Carvalho Observer-cum-Manager.

The above list has been finalized by the Indian Olympic Association. Earlier, the Selection Committee Meeting was held on 22nd April 2008 and IHF had sent the names of 11 players from which in place of the Goal Keeper, Mrinal Chaubey the name of Sr. Goal Keeper, Baljit Singh has been substituted . Danish Mujtaba had been replaced by Sr. Player. We had selected 11 Jr. Players and 7 Sr. Players from the Team in Australia and now it is 9 Players from the Camp and 9 Players from the Sr. Team. It is just a cosmetic change. The two Jr. Boys being dropped will mean less exposure to them, in view of the forthcoming Jr. Asia Cup being held at Hyderabad in July 2008.

Korean suspended 5 matches


03/05/08


In the match against Ireland on Thursday 1 May, Korean player #1 Lim Ju Young has been found to have violated the FIH Code of Conduct.
In the opinion of Tournament Director Laura Pigretti, a Level 3 offence had been committed because there was physical assault causing bodily injury to another player.
Due to all the facts and findings, the decision of the Tournament Director is as follows:
Lim Ju Young, player # 1 of the Korean team, is suspended for five matches;
The suspension will begin from 2 May 2008;
It should be applied to the next International World Level event;
To complete the suspension, the player must be a member of the Korean team;
The matter will be referred to the FIH Honorary Secretary General for further consideration of the Judicial Commission.