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Dhanraj Pillay to lead India in World Cup

Mercurial forward Dhanraj Pillay has been retained captain of the 16-member Indian hockey team for the 9th World Cup hockey tournament to be held at Utrecht (Holland) from May 21 to June 1.

Veteran goalkeeper A B Subbaiah is the surprise omission in the team.

Indian Hockey Federation president K P S Gill, while announcing the team, said that three players who are on the injured list -- Pillay himself, as well as Baljit Singh Saini and Rajiv Mishra -- will be put through a fitness test at Patiala on May 12 and 13 and, if found unfit at that stage, will not be included in the final squad.

Keeping in view the injury factor, said Gill, the selectors had picked eight standbyes and there was a good chance that some of them might make the final eleven.

The team: Jagdish Ponnappa, Jude Menezes (goalkeepers); Dilip Tirkey, Lazarus Barla and Anil Aldrin (full backs); Baljit Singh Saini, Mohammad Riaz, Thirumal Valavan, Ramandeep Singh (half backs); Mukesh Kumar, Dhanraj Pillay, Sabu Verkey, Rajesh Chauhan, Samir Dad, Rajiv Mishra, and Harbajan Singh (forwards).

V Bhaskaran will be chief coach with C R Kumar and Ramesh Parameswaran as his assistants; Col Cruz will accompany the team as doctor and G Gunasekharan as physical trainer. The manager of the squad is yet to be named.

Eleven of the 16 players -- Ponnappa, Menezes, Tirkey, Aldrin, Saini, Thirumal Valavan, Ramandeep, Varkey, Chauhan, Samir Dad and Harbhajan -- were in the team which finished last in the double leg four-nation tournament at Australia early this month.

Asked who would lead the team in case Pillay fails the fitness test, Gill said, "Let us wait and watch," while however making clear that the fitness tests and workouts in Patiala will be very strenuous. "Let us watch their performance," the IHF chief said, maintaining that while the doctors had indicated the three players would be fully fit, everything would depend on the trials. "We will take only players who are 100 per cent fit, who can last on the turf for 70 minutes," Gill said.

Chief coach Bhaskran said that the 16 players have been picked up on the basis of their current performance. Referring to the omission of Subbaiah, Bhaskaran said the two selected goalkeepers had had good games in the four nation tournament in Australia.

The coach was of the view that ''We have only two suspected injured players and not three, because Saini is fully recovered and he will be taking part in the final camp at Patiala from the very first day, which is May 6. I am also hopeful that Pillay and Mishra will recover before the competition, which is still six weeks away," Bhaskaran added.

He said as per the rules formulated by the world body (FIH) a player can be included in the side one hour before the start of their first match and after that, no changes are allowed. ''So why not take advantage of the rule and wait till the team's departure, after all Pakistan made use of this rule in the Atlanta Olympics where Shahbaz (Sr) was included in the team a few hours before the start of their opener,'' Bhaskaran pointed out.

The coach admitted that penalty corner conversion remains the grey area. "We are working on some new tactics," Bhaskaran said, pointing out that ''In Australia earlier this month, we improved our penalty coner conversion by 20 per cent as compared to our performance against Pakistan in the eight Test series before that.''

Veteran goalkeeper Subbaiah, meanwhile, lashed out at the Indian Hockey Federation, saying, "This is no way to treat a senior player."

''I'm shattered by the selectors' decision to drop me from the World Cup squad,'' Subbaiah said, adding that he only knew about his omission from mediapersons, who sought his reaction. ''No coach or official had the courtesy to tell me that I am being dropped,'' he lamented.

Subbaiah, who has represented the country in two Olympics, three Champions Trophy tournaments, two Asia Cups and one World Cup, said he was surprised at Gill's comment about his lack of form. "When, in recent past, have I given any sign of declining form?" he demanded.