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IHF makes changes in selection procedures

The Indian Hockey Federation on Monday made drastic changes in the selection process of teams, while skirting the much-talked about issue of changing coach Vasudevan Bhaskaran in the wake of India's disastrous show in the World Cup at Utrecht.

Briefing newsmen after the IHF meeting, federation president K P S Gill said it was decided to take short term measures to solve the ills of Indian hockey. However, he parried most of the questions relating to change of coach, following India's poor show.

He said the IHF had decided to change the selection process as the present system had too many lacunae. For one thing, a player today could perform to the optimum level in the two to three hours of trials and get selected.

Hence, the IHF had decided to pick up the team after studying the performance in a tournament lasting over a week or more, giving the selectors more of an opportunity to assess both performance and fitness over a longer duration.