Bhutia pulls out of Merdeka cup

Skipper Baichung Bhutia has pulled out of next month's Merdeka Cup in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur and the All India Football Federation, reconciled to his absence, today named 28 probables who will take part in the preparatory camp for the event.

AIFF Secretary Alberto Colaco, said here Bhutia has requested AIFF not to consider him for the Merdeka Cup, beginning on June 20, as he wants to take some rest and holiday with his family.

Bhutia, however, has said he would be willing to play in the tour of England (in July) and the Afro-Asian Games (in New Delhi in November) if he is released by his club, Bury F C, Colaco said in a statement.

Meanwhile, none of the players who figured in the Group 8 Asian Zone pre-World Cup qualifiers has been dropped for the preparatory camp, for which AIFF has added eight more players.
They are:
Sangram Mukerjee, Daljit Singh, Tapan Ghosh, Basudev Mandal, Hardip S, Deepankar Roy, Najeeb and Hardip Gill.

The 20 members of the national team that played in the qualifiers and retained are:
Virender Singh, N Balaji, Prasanta Dora, Surkumar Singh, Deepak Kumar Mondal, Mahesh Gawli, Robert Fernandes, Dhanesh K V, Ratan Singh, Jules Alberto, Khalid Jamil, Jo Paul Ancheri, Renedy Singh, S Venkatesh, R P Singh, I M Vijayan, Alvito D'Cunha, Abdul Hakkim, R C Prakash and Noel Wilson.

The camp begins here on June 8. Sukhwinder Singh and Krishnaji Rao will continue as Coach and Technical Director of the team, respectively, it was stated.