The Hindu : Sport / Football : Bhutia is captain

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Aug 11, 2004

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Sport - Football

Bhutia is captain

By Our Sports Reporter

KOLKATA, AUG. 10. Star striker Baichung Bhutia was retained the captain of the Indian football team as the All India Football Federation (AIFF) announced a 20-member squad on Tuesday for the LG Cup football tournament in Vietnam and the 2006 World Cup qualifier against Japan.

Five players were named standbys and will train with the first 20.

The AIFF steered clear of any controversy and chose seven players from East Bengal despite the club ignoring the National body's directive to release the players for the camp.

The AIFF secretary, Alberto Colaco, and chief coach, Stephen Constantine, acknowledged that most of the East Bengal players were too good to be left out.

The new four-member selection committee acceded to most of the names proposed by Constantine, and made only a couple of alterations in the final list of 25, including the standbys.

The selectors — Prasun Banerjee, Brahmanand Sankvalkar, V.P. Sathyan and Henry Menezes — said there was not much scope for them as there were only 32 names to select from.

Injuries

Also affecting the selection process was injuries to key players like Jo Paul Ancheri, Alvito D'Cunha, M. Suresh, Vimal Pariyar and Freddy Mascarenhas. Constantine said he was now left with the task of "filling the gaps'' left by injuries.

"We will miss an experienced and capable player like Ancheri but hope he recovers in time for the match against Japan,'' he said.

India, which won the LG tournament in 2002 ending three decades of title drought in the international arena, is clubbed with Myanmar and host Vietnam in the preliminary group league. The other group has University of South Korea, a selection of Ho Chi Minh City — which will host the meet at Thong Nhat Stadium between August 20 to 28 — and the Singapore national team.

The squad:

Goalkeepers: Sangram Mukherjee (East Bengal), Naseem Akhtar (Mahindra); Defenders: Dipak Mondal, Devjit Ghosh, Habibur Rehman Mondal (all East Bengal), Mahesh Gawli, Debabrata Roy (Mahindra), Vinu Jose (Vasco), Sameer Naik (Dempo); Midfielders: Shanmugam Venkatesh, Jatin Singh Bisht, Steven Dias (Mahindra United), Jerry Zirsanga, Tomba Singh (Mohun Bagan), Climax Lawrence (East Bengal), Renedy Singh (Ever Ready); Forwards: Baichung Bhutia (East Bengal), Abhishek Yadav (Mahindra), R.C. Prakash (Dempo) and Ashim Biswas (Bagan).

Standbys: Prasanta Dora, Gourmangi Singh (Bagan), Covan Lawrence, Surkumar Singh (Mahindra), Bijen Singh (East Bengal).

Chief coach: Stephen Constantine;

Assistant coach: Aloke Mukherjee.

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