HI sets eye on players’auction ahead of league

Captain at the London Olympics,Bharat Chetri,and PR Sreejesh are among the goalkeepers while drag-flick exponents Sandeep Singh,VR Raghunath and Rupinder Pal Singh are among the 14 full-backs who have signed for the league. India vice-captain Sardar Singh leads the pack of 25 players on the midfield while the forwardline will have the likes of SV Sunil,Shivendra Singh,Tushar Khandker and Gurvinder Singh Chandi.

“We have released a list of 14 Pakistan players who have agreed to be a part of the HIL Players’ Auction and will soon announce players from other top hockey playing nations,” he added.

He was also hopeful that the League will be a hit and capture the imagination of the hockey lovers in India as well as abroad. The fact that the international federation has earmarked a window for the League shows its importance. “It has evoked enormous interest among players and coaches and promises to be a one-of-a-kind event,” Batra said.

No hitch about WSH 2: IHF

Meanwhile,a statement issued by Indian Hockey Federation (IHF),from Mumbai said that it was confident that its own World Series Hockey season-2 will be held without a hitch from December 15. “We don’t foresee any problem (in conducting WSH-2),” IHF president RK Shetty said in a statement.

Shetty said he did not foresee any problem in conducting WSH,a joint initiative of IHF with Nimbus Sport. “We had allowed players who had signed up for WSH to play in the Olympic qualifiers as we wanted India to do well. But none of the players who took part in WSH were considered for selection and it resulted in the team finishing last,” Shetty said.

“And the supremo of HI (Batra) had the cheek to say he owns up responsibility for the poor display. In any other country he would have been sacked,but not here,” he said.

Shetty also informed that IHF has not responded to the FIH letter asking it,as well as HI,to provide written submissions explaining the basis on which both bodies maintain that they were the ones who fulfil the FIH’s membership criteria and not the other.

The deadline given was September 7,but IHF has not complied with the FIH’s missive,informed Shetty who hit out at the world body for threatening Indian players of an Olympic ban if they turned out in WSH and then reneging on this in the case of Pakistan.