It was a week marred from injuries for Indian hockey team
after Indian captain Arjun Halappa was ruled out of Asian Champions Trophy due
to groin injury. Captain Arjun joins Shivendra Singh, Tushar Khandekar, Bharat
Chikara and Dhananjay Mahadik on the injury bench. Shivendra Singh has not
recovered from the collarbone fracture he suffered during hockey nationals
while India’s other experienced striker Tushar Khandekar is out due to ankle
injury. Bharat Chikara who has not played for more than six months will have to
wait to return to the field as his knee injury has not fully healed. Penalty
Corner specialist and defender Dhananjay Mahadik is also out after injuring his
ankle in Sultan Azlan Shah. (Times of India)
India’s new coach Michael Nobbs is working very hard on the
fitness of Indian team and it is also number 1 priority for the Indian team.
Indian team which was dubbed as a ‘35 minute team’ by former captain Col.
Balbir Singh is working hard on its fitness levels to compete against the likes
of Australia and other European teams. According to coach Nobbs despite being
behind other teams Indian team has huge start and players are better in terms
of physical fitness as compared to earlier. Sandeep Singh has lost 4 kgs and
gained 2 kgs in muscle mass. The speed of the players has improved. (Times of
India)
On the platinum jubilee of Indian hockey team’s victory in
Berlin Olympics (15th August, 1936), Madhya Pradesh government has
decided to honour 30 former hockey Olympians today (15th August,
2011). Maharastra CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan has honoured the likes of Gurbax
Singh, Mukhben Singh, Ajit Singh, Inaam-ur-Rehman, Charles Cornellius ,
Aslan Sher Khan and others were
felicitated by the MP government. (Times
of India)
More than two weeks have passed since FIH gave a statement which
said about removing India as the hosts of Champions Trophy and Olympic
qualifiers but still MoS has done nothing to resolve this problem. The inflated
egos of Indian Hockey Federation officials and not to forget Hockey India are
eating Indian hockey but still they are not ready to resolve the problem
between them and in turn save Indian hockey from embarrassment which FIH may
dish out to Indian hockey. After giving them months to merge, the best both
could do is work on four issues which does not include central contract to the
players and promoting the game.
New Zealand hockey and the players have signed a MoU to form
a hockey players association which will be solely focused on taking care of the
players needs. Indian players who are always dished out rough treatment by the
board has yet not formed an association which will look into the needs of the
players and make sure they are not ill-treated by the board. To read my blog
post on Hockey Players Association click here.
Through a German friend of mine I found out that Germany
(other European countirestoo) has national teams for the age groups of 40 and
above. Germany has national team for the age group 40 to 55 and 60 to 70 years
of age and they also have regular tournaments against other countries. The tournaments
(regular feature in Europe) also consist of the former players playing for
their national teams. This could be a great example for our retired players to
play in the tournament and keep the body fit as well as earn some money from
it. Instead of going about how bad our Indian team is, the former players
should form a team and play the games against other countries. It would also
give a chance for us younger generations to watch our old greats play hockey. They
might not be as good as they were in their early days but they are still our
heroes.
**Will be covering top stories of the week and the new things I learn in this section. For more daily hockey news follow me on twitter
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