The Hindu : Sport / Hockey : Carvalho confident

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Saturday, Mar 24, 2007
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Carvalho confident

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: The newly-appointed Chief Coach of the Indian hockey team, Joaquim Carvalho, will be on probation for a one-year period. His performance will be watched in the Olympic qualifiers, in April next year, before taking a decision about his continuation.

Disclosing this here on Friday, the Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) Secretary, K. Jothikumaran, said that the federation was on the lookout for an "international expert" who could "guide" the team and also devise a coaching system for the country.

The international federation (FIH) was helping the IHF in choosing an international coach, Mr. Jothikumaran said. "We are going by the FIH advice in this regard," he said.

Despite indications earlier that there would be a formal press conference to announce the new set of coaches, the IHF opted to issue a press release, listing the probables and the coaches. A separate statement from Carvalho was also issued.

The coaches for the junior team were not named, but M.M. Somaiyya and Merwyn Fernandes were named as the Technical Director and Technical Adviser respectively.

"Going by the World Cup and Asian Games results, our performances went on dipping not due to lack of talent, but due to other factors which we have short listed and will be worked upon by the entire coaching staff," Carvalho said in the statement.

"I have done a detailed analysis of each player and you will see a different Indian team perform in the coming tournaments, starting with the Azlan Shah. The final goal is qualification for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games," the Chief Coach said.

The IHF announced a list of 31 probables for the Azlan Shah tournament to be held in Ipoh, Malaysia from May 5-13. Arjun Halappa, Rajpal Singh, Ignace Tirkey, Vikram Pillay, Viren Rasquniha, Kanwalpreet Singh, Hari Prasad, V.S. Vinay and Adam Sinclair were the notable omissions from the list. Gagan Ajit Singh and Bimal Lakra are, however, back.

The probables: Goalkeepers: Adrian D' Souza, Sreejesh, Bharat Chhetri, Baljit Singh and Dinesh Ekka.

Full backs: Dilip Tirkey, William Xalxo, Raghunath, Harpal Singh and Sandeep Singh.

Midfielders: Pawan Lakra, Gurbaj Singh, Dhananjay Mahadhik, Prabodh Tirkey, Sardara Singh, Senthil Kumar, Bimal Lakra, Sunil Yadav and Vickram Kanth.

Forwards: Shivendra Singh, Tushar Khandekar, Damandeep Singh, Bruno, Sunil Ekka, Roshan Minz, Jarnail Singh, V. Raja, Gagan Ajit Singh, Ravipal, Bharat Chikara and Sarwan Singh.

Coaches: Joaquim Carvalho (Chief Coach), M.P. Singh (coach) and Ramesh Parameswaran (assistant coach).

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