India

While the number and names of the foreign players for the Premier Hockey League are still not clear, the Indian Hockey Federation has decided upon the coaches in-charge of the five teams.

National junior coach Harender Singh will be in charge of the Hyderabad Sultans. This comes as a surprise since it was earlier hinted that the assistant coach of the senior team Jagbir was to have the Sultans under his wings. The other coaches to feature in the PHL are: Ramesh Parmeshwaran and Ashish Ballal (Bangalore High-Fliers), BP Govinda (Chennai Veerans), Clarence Lobo (Maratha Warriors) and Ramandeep Singh (Sher-e-Jallandhar).



Meanwhile, the IHF in association with telecasters ESPN and Leisure Sports Management are holding regular parley to finalise the list of players.

‘‘We have almost decided on the team compositions, but the final list will be available only by next week,’’ said a senior official. According to him, 15 foreign players have been decided so far, and there are talks on with about 4-5 more.

‘‘There are eight players from Pakistan. Besides, there will be four from Malaysia, three from Japan, two from France and three from Spain, as things stand today,” he added. According to sources, Frederic Soyez and Nicolas Musgens from the recent French team that beat India have impressed the officials enough to be selected for the league, besides Spanish captain Juan Escarre.

It was also learnt that the national players will have the advantage of playing for their respective city teams. Prabodh Tirkey, Sandeep Michael, Tushar Khandekar and VS Vinay are likely to play for Bangalore High-Fliers while Adrian D’Souza has been short listed for the Maratha Warriors. Though mercurial striker Dhanraj Pillay has been named for the league, sources close to the player say he has not yet taken any final decision on playing.

Once the teams are finalised, there will be 10-day preparatory camps for the players ahead of the league, beginning on 2nd January.

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