NEW DELHI, MARCH 31: The All-India Football Federation plans to field a revamped Indian team for their SAFF Coca-Cola Cup tournament in April. AIFF has dropped nine players from the team that lost four of the five matches in the Asian Games.The 25 probables shortlisted for the SAFF Cup will attend the first camp at Bangalore from April 5-10 under the supervision of new national coach Sukhwinder Singh.The forward line is likely to have Dipendu Biswas and teenager Hardeep Gill. Biswas, an ex-student of the Tata Football Academy, was quite a sensation when he led the Indian under-19 team in the Asian Youth (under-19) championship final round three years back. Well-built and good in air, Biswas, who plays for East Bengal, will be one to watch out for.Gill is just out of college and has had an impressive season this year with JCT. India will miss the services of goalkeeper Hemanto Dora, who could not make it to the probables because of an injury that kept him out of the major part of the recentlyconcluded Coca Cola National Football League.The focus will be on the latest recruits like Riazul Mustafa, Prabhjot Singh, Daljit Singh, Ratan Singh, Deepak Mondal, Jules Alberto, Ranjan Dey, Rajendra Prasad Singh and Ram Pal. Mid-fielder Jules Alberto will be the most keenly watched man.Yet, the limelight will continue to remain on the two finest footballers - Bhaichung Bhutia and IM Vijayan. The two have together scored 15 goals in the last three editions of the SAFF tourney. The expectation on them will be to start from where they left in Kathmandu two years ago.
