Tirkey retained skipper for Asiad, Gill dropped

Defending champions India have retained full-back Dilip Tirkey as captain of their 16-member field hockey squad for the Asian Games starting...

Defending champions India have retained full-back Dilip Tirkey as captain of their 16-member field hockey squad for the Asian Games starting in Busan later this month.

Tirkey, a member of the winning team in the 1998 Bangkok Asian Games, had led India to fourth place in the elite six-nation Champions Trophy in Cologne, Germany earlier this month. However, midfielder SS Gill and Arjun Halappa were dropped from the Cologne squad.

Other prominent members of the squad, announced on Friday by the Indian Hockey Federation (IHF), are veteran forward Dhanraj Pillay, who was named Player-of the Tournament at Cologne, and young striker Gagan Ajit Singh.

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India are in pool A of the eight-team competition with HongKong, Japan and hosts South Korea, who were runners-up in Bangkok. Indian coach Rajinder Singh said his team was confident of returning from the Games with top honours. “The boys are playing very well, the morale is high,” hetold reporters. “If we play to our potential we should win gold.”

“Our performance at the recent Champions Trophy has againplaced us amongst the top teams in the world,” said K P S Gill, IHF president.

“Our team is ready to take on the best of Asia and I amconfident they will bring gold back.”

Coach Rajinder said his team would still rely on playing the traditional style at the Asian Games.