he IHF broke a cardinal rule of never to change a winning combination by summarily sacking 6 senior members of the Asian Games gold medal winning team. Even before the euphoria of winning the Asian Games died down, the IHF served marching orders to six players - Dhanraj Pillai, Mukesh Kumar, Sabu Varkey, Sandeep Somesh, Ashish Ballal and A. B. Subbaiah.

Even the IHF secretary, Mr. Jyothikumaran, said in a newspaper interview on January 6 that the Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) will not resort to any steps like replacing the chief national coach M.K. Kaushik with a foreign coach, neither does it have any plans to show the exit to senior players on the pretext of preparing for the Sydney Olympics. Less than a week after that statement, the players were sacked. This has confirmed that there is no credibility to what Jyothikumaran says.

Olympian Ashok Kumar questioned the merit of the players listed in the probables after dropping the seniors. "I have no idea on what basis they have been selected. IHF has not conducted enough domestic tournaments and we have not seen many of the players chosen. Nobody bothered to discuss anything with me. The whole episode hurts and I will resign," said Ashok Kumar.

Superstar Dhanraj Pillai was addressing students of the Symbiosis Spa in Pune at the time of the sacking. Ironcially, Pillai had told the students that he would play for the country and his aim was to bring in the Sydney Olympic gold.

Pillai later had a telephonic conversation with IHF president Gill, but refused to divulge the details. Pillai gave no hint of hanging his stick but did mention that he has received offers to play in France, Italy, Germany and Bangladesh.

nstead of recommending Maharaj Krishan Kaushik for the ulimate honour for coaches, the Dronacharya award, the IHF has given the boot to Kaushik as his reward for winning India the Asian Games gold. There has already been a backlash of anger against this unjust decision of the IHF, as the fans are at a loss to understand how a coach can be 'rested.'

In fact just two days after returning to Delhi after the Asian Games, star forward Mukesh Kumar had gone on record saying, "If Kaushik is not there, I am not interested in playing for the team."'

Similar views were expressed by Olympian Ashok Kumar on Kaushik. "The whole affair of 'resting' the six seniors has been done in an improper manner. How can it be done without taking the concerned players into confidence? After all, they are veteran players and had a major role in winning the Asian Games gold medal after 32 years,'' said Ashok Kumar.

Similar views were expressed by former selector and 3-time World Cupper Ajit Pal Singh. "Some players might have needed rest but not Kaushik. Frequent changes of coaches are not good for the team,'' said Ajit Pal.

The fact of the matter was that the IHF administrators did not feel comfortable with the power centre developing around Kaushik. The IHF chief minced no words when he said that the coach was dictating on certain administrative matters.

The IHF President explained that at the moment the federation was not in favour of having a national coach, but will continue with a panel of coaches. The IHF is also known to be looking towards the Netherlands to import a coach from there. For the Indo-Pak series, however, Vasudevan Bhaskaran, who guided India to a poor 9th place in the Utrecht World Cup, has been appointed the hockey coach.

Asked whether Baskaran's comeback had anything to do with the 'resting' of the senior players, Mr. Gill said that it was purely conincidental. It may be recalled that Baskaran had made critical comments about all the senior players, including Pillay and Mukesh Kumar, after the World Cup.

pplying the same logic that led to the sacking of 6 senior players and the hockey coach, both the IHF President Mr. K. P. S. Gill and Secretary Jyothikumaran have been 'rested' for the remainder of the 1999 hockey calendar.

At a press conference, Mr. Gill explained that adminstrators needed to be treated by the same yardstick as the players and coaches. If players can be sacked for failing to deliver, so can the administrators. He explained that the IHF had failed in its mandate of holding the national championships every year.

While other countries have national hockey leagues played on articifical turfs involving lots of overseas recruits, the IHF has not only no plans for a league, but also rotten and worn out artificial turfs in Mumbai, Pune and Delhi.

Jyothikumaran pointed out that the IHF had not taken a proactive role in sending Indian hockey stars to lucrative hockey leagues in Europe and Australia. He explained that top Pakistani superstars (Shahbaaz Ahmed, Tahir Zaman, et al) all got handsome contracts for playing in the Dutch league. Even Malaysia, under the guidance of Paul Lissek, is sending 6 juniors to Division I of the German Hockey League.

They both sheepishly explained that due to cancelling of a legal TV contract agreement with Star Sports (in favour of Doordarshan), the Singapore-based ESPN-Star network has vowed never to work with the IHF until the Gill-Jyothikumaran duo is removed from the IHF. For sports fans in India, what has been hockey's loss has been cricket's gain, going by the number of hours of live and tape-delayed telecast devoted to cricket.

When asked to comment on Ashish Ballal's statement that the IHF is run by a drunkard and a clerk, there was just silence from the Gill-Jyothikumaran duo.

Kidding. Maybe Not.

abeer Bhatia, the India-born founder of Hotmail, announced cash awards of Rs. 1 lakh each for all the 16 players, two coaches, and manager of the hockey team that won the Asian Games gold medal in Bangkok after a gap of 32 years. This was in reaction to the sacking of the 6 Asiad gold medallists and he said, "It is time that we honoured our national treasures and not treat heroes like mere puppets on a string. I want each of our heroes to realise that we care for and salute them."

In typical American millionaire's style, Bhatia, the 29-year-old Bangalore boy who sold his Hotmail company to Microsoft Corp for $400 million, flourished 20 cheques worth $50,000 total, at an informal press meet in Bombay. He signed one the moment he saw Mir Ranjan Negi, the goalkeepers' coach, and presented it.

In a snub to the Indian Hockey Federation, Bhatia contemptuously dismissed a suggestion to hand over the cheques to the IHF for distribution. "I will do it myself because in this country corruption is rampant in every walk of life," the former student of the Birla Institute of Technology, Pilani, said. Bhatia played hockey for the Combined Universities side in 1987-88 before he left for America.

Bhatia was on a visit to India when he read an article on how shabbily the six heroes of the side, Dhanraj Pillai, Ashish Ballal, Sandeep Somesh, Sabu Varkey, Mukesh Kumar and A. B. Subbaiah had been treated.

"I have suffered enough humiliation in life to know how the discarded players must be feeling. Hence the first thought was to soothe them with cash," the young technology tycoon, who is now chief executive officer for Hotmail in Sunnyvale, California, said. Bhatia later left for Poona to meet Pillai, captain of the winning side, and congratulate him.

Asked if he would return with more cheques if India won the Sydney Olympics in 2000, Bhatia replied: "Sure."

ll is set for the Pepsi Indo-Pak hockey series starting February 3 in New Delhi. PHF President Akhtar Rasool Chaudhary expressed optimism on Pakistan's chances saying, "If India is the Asian Games champion, let us not forget that we are silver medallists of Champions Trophy.

Akhtar Rasool promised exciting hockey in the series. "People from Pakistan and India always love to see both sides playing each other and it will put extra thrill in the event," he said.

Englishman Hamish Jamson and Australian David Gentles have been appointed as the umpires for the Indian leg of the Indian Pakistan series. For the Pakistani leg, the umpires are Poudfoot Garth (South Africa) and Philip Schellekens (Holland).

A camp was held in preparation for the series against Pakistan, at Patiala from January 17 to 31. The Indian team is captained by Anil Aldrin, with Mohammed Riaz as his deputy. All players except P. Shanmugham have played at the international level both for the junior and senior sides. 24 members have been selected for the Indian leg, of which only 16 will go to Pakistan. The Indian team composition is as follows:

Goalkeepers	Jagdish Poonappa, B. C. Poonacha, P. U. Boppanna
Backs	Dilip Tirkey, Lazarus Barla, Anil Aldrin
Half-Backs	Baljit Singh Saini, Mohammed Riaz, Ramandeep Singh, Thirumal Valavan, Shanmugham
Forwards	L. Prabhakaran, Sameer Dad, Gagan Ajit Singh, Daljit Singh Dhillon, Rajesh Chauhan, Ravinder Singh, Gurusevak Singh, Kamal Horo, Surinder Singh, Deepak Thakur, Sarabjit Singh, Baljit Singh Dhillon
Coach	Vasudevan Bhaskaran

The Pakistan team is captained by Dr. Atif Bashir, with Mohammed Sarwar as his deputy. The team composition is as follows:

Goalkeepers	Mohammad Qasim, Ahmad Alam
Backs	Sohail Abbas, Aamer Salim, Danish Kalim
Half-Backs	Irfan Yousaf, Muhammad Saqlain, Wasim Ahmed, Asad Qureshi, Mubasher Mukhtar
Forwards	Muhammad Irfan, Dr. Atif Bashir, Ijaz Rasool, Muhammad Nadeem, Muhammad Anis, Mohammad Sarwar, Muhammad Khalid and Naveed Asim
Coach	Shahnaz Shaikh

akistan national hockey team coach Shahnaz Sheikh once again did not get a timely release order from his organisation, Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), for the forthcoming Indo-Pak hockey series as well as the preparatory coaching camp.

The Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) had to request the PIA not only to release Shahnaz, but also treat him as working on duty while on assignment as national coach. This was because the PIA did not pay Shahnaz's salary for the period he was on duty with the hockey team in 1998.

The former Olympian, who is posted as baggage manager at the Karachi airport, had to run around the official corridors before the issue got finally sorted out. The PHF president Akhtar Rasool Chaudhary talked to the PIA chairman Shahid Khaqan Abbasi directly and obtained Shahnaz Sheikh's release.

It may be recalled that the PIA-PHF problems have surfaced ever since the PHF appointed Olympian Akhtar Rasool as its President, bypassing a convention of having the PIA chairman also serve as the President of the PHF.   

ndia's 1999 hockey calendar kicks off in February. India will be hosting the Asia Cup towards the later part of the year. The Indian hockey schedule till the middle of the year is as follows:

Date	Venue	Event
Feb 2 - Feb 9	Cairo	5-Nation Invitational
Feb 3 - Feb 24	India, Pakistan	Indo-Pak Hockey Series
Mar 4 - Mar 12	Dubai	6-Nationa Invitational
Apr 3 - Apr 11	Ipoh	Sultan Azlan Shah Cup
Jun 8 - Jun 13	Germany	India-Germany Test Series
Aug 13 - Aug 21	South Africa	India-South Africa Test Series
August	Hamburg	Panasonic Cup

he inaugural Akbar El Youm international hockey tournament will be held at Cairo, Egypt, from February 2 to 9, 1999. India's schedule is as follows:

Date	Match
February 2	India vs. Kenya
February 3	India vs. Canada
February 5	India vs. Egypt
February 7	India vs. Malaysia
February 8	Rest Day
February 9	Final

A preparatory coaching camp was held at New Delhi from January 11 - 25. The 36 probables selected for the coaching camp were as follows:

Goalkeepers	Ambuj Srivastava (Railways), A. P. Girish (Mumbai), Devesh Chauhan (AI Academy), Murali Krishna (Hyderabad), Satish Kumar (CRZ School, Haryana), Edward (Air India)
Backs	Anurag Raghuvanshi (AI Academy), Bikramjit Singh (PSB), Parvez Alam (UP), Dinesh Nayak (TN), Cheops D'Costa (Mumbai), Gurmail Singh (PSB), Shailendra Vashishta (CRPF)
Half-Backs	Anwar Khan, Nausher Singh, Kuldeep Singh (Railways), Sunil Yadav (AI Academy), Bimal Lakra (Centre of Excellence), Baljit Singh Chandi (PSB), Radhakrishnan (TN), Paramjeet Singh (Services), Ernico Fernando (Mumbai), Mohammad Rafiuddin (Hyderabad)
Forwards	Gurusewak Singh, Deepak (PSB), Bipin Fernandes (Air India), Gurjant Singh (Centre of Excellence), Harbhajan Singh (BSF), Mukesh Kumar, Tanveer Jamal, Hemram (CRPF), Ajinder Pal Singh (Railways), Ershad (UP), Sukhjeet Singh (Punjab), Senthil (TN), Brojen Singh (Indian Airlines)
Coach	Rajinder Singh

he Indian women's team calendar for 1999 begins with a four-nation tournament to be held in Australia in April. The first coaching camp in preparation for the tournament was held at NIS Patiala from January 15 to February 10.

The 32 probables selected for the coaching camp are as follows:

State	Players
Haryana	Suman Deswal, Nutan, Gurpreet Kaur, Kiran Bala, Simarjit Kaur
Orissa	Radhika, Vinitha, Asrita Toppo, Agnesia
Bihar	Pushpa Pradhan, Adlina Kerketta, Masira Surin
Chandigarh	Harpal Kaur, Mamta, Nishi
Mumbai	Fatima, Pakpi Devi, Paulina Surin
Karnataka	Madhavi, Elena Christy, B. Pallavi
Delhi	Sarita Khatri, Sushila Kumari
Punjab	Harmanpreet, Harvinder
Andhra	Deepika Sharma
Gujarat	Deepika Murthy
Himachal	Raja Rani
Kerala	Ambika
Manipur	Rebika
PEPSU	Charanjit Kaur
Tamil Nadu	Muthu Selvi

yderabad will have the distinction of hosting the first hockey tournament in India to be held under floodlights. 

The senior National hockey championship for the Rangaswamy Cup will be held at the Begumpet Police Stadium, from March 11-25, 1999, under floodlights. IHF President K. P. S. Gill, secretary K. Jyothikumaran and Hyderabad Hockey Association President and state DGP H. J. Dora met Andhra Pradesh chief minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu for the necessary clearances.

Incidentally, no national championships were conducted in 1998.   

ngland, Holland and Germany have a large number of overseas players playing in the local leagues. England leads the way, with as many as 68 foreigners registered to play in two divisions. This list includes 19 Australians, 14 South Africans, 5 New Zealanders and assorted others. Southgate even has an overseas coach - the Australian Neil Hawgood.

Among late registrations were Greg Pierce of New Zealand and Benjamin Simes of Australia have signed for Hampstead, while Old Loughtonians have recruited South African Brett Stephen. South Africans Greg Nicol and Craig Jackson have joined Surbiton. Hounslow has Australian Max Diamond as their centre-half.

In the National Hockey League for women, Germans Luisa Leisewitz and Ulrike Patschowski joined Hampton in Arden, while Tammy Nancoo, the Trinidadian international, signed for St Albans.

One of the benefits of Paul Lissek's coaching stint in Malaysia is that Lissek has arranged for six Malaysian juniors to play in Division I of the German Hockey League. The six players, all from the Project 2001 squad, will play in the competitive 4-month German league beginning in mid-March and ending in May. After a one month break, they rejoin the German league in July.

18-year old K. Logan Raj and his elder brother Keevan Raj will play for Moenchengladbach. Boon Huat and Suhaimi will feature for Red and White Munich club, while Mohamed Madzli and Mohamed Syayrim will play for the Black and White Nuess team. All six juniors will miss the Malaysian Junior National Hockey League which begins on April 16.

Back in 1997, five other Malaysian players played in the German league. The players were S. Kuhan and Kerpal Singh (Limburg), Chairil Anwar Aziz and Nor Azlan Bakar (Frankfurt 1880) and R. Shankar (SAFO).

Of course the toughest hockey league in the world is the Dutch league, which has Pakistani superstarts Shahbaz Ahmed and Tahir Zaman in their ranks. New Zealander Lisa Walton plays for the Laren club in the Dutch women's premier league.

he US Field Hockey Association has named Australian Olympic gold medalist and Queensland Academy of Sport coach Tracy Belbin as head coach of the US Women’s National Field Hockey Team. Belbin’s appointment concludes a 6-month, world-wide search following the resignation of former US head coach Pax Hixon in July, 1998.

A Level-3 accredited coach in Australia, Belbin also served as head coach for the women’s hockey program at the ACT Academy of Sport in 1997-98.

A member of the Australian Senior National Team from 1985-93, Belbin won a gold medal with the Australian team at the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games. She made an additional Olympic appearance for Australia with a fifth place finish at the 1992 Barcelona Games, and served as vice captain of the Australian silver-medalist team at the 1990 World Cup. She has continued her playing career as a member of the National Women’s Hockey League’s Canberra Strikers where she helped lead the team to a second place league finish in 1998.

With her appointment as US head coach, Belbin begins an eventful year in 1999. After relocating to San Diego, the 1993 graduate of the University of Queensland in Brisbane plans to marry in April, and will lead the US team at the XIII Pan American Games, July 24-August 8, in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.

he Jamaica Hockey Federation has installed an astro turf surface at a hockey field in Mona Road. This is the first artificial turf field in Jamaica, and the third in the Caribbean.

Work on the FIH-approved surface started on November 19 last year, and was completed mid-December by Barber Sports Surfaces Ltd. and AstroTurf Surfaces Ltd., two Canadian companies. The durable nylon surface is guaranteed for at least 20 years. The turf can stand up to extreme temperature or weather conditions. The TVN26/8 turf measures 100 x 60 metres and has an 8mm sub-base cushion of sand and marl under it.

The project, funded by the Sports Development Foundation (SDF), cost nearly US$ 290,000. The turf was constructed in 3 months. With the acquisition of the long awaited turf, Jamaica are now in a position to stage international tournaments. The Pan American Hockey Federation (PAHF) has already confirmed Jamaica as hosts of the first Pan American Club Championships (September 18-25, 1999).

Among those present at the well-attended opening ceremony were the sports minister, Governor General, president of Barber, sales manager of AstroTurf Limited and members of the hockey playing fraternity.

he Asian Hockey Federation (AHF) was in the news recently due to an abortive bid by an Indo-Pak initiative (Gill - Asghar) to wrest control of the governing body. However, the present incumbents, Sultan Azlan Shah (President), and Datuk P. Alagendra (Secretary) retained their positions by a comfortable margin.

The other office bearers of the AHF are : M. Ueda, Annabel Ess, K. P. S. Gill, Akhtar Rasool, Pisit Ngampanich and Shin Bark Jae (all Vice Presidens), and Fumio Ogura (Treasurer).

What exactly does the AHF do? It has given equipment aid to Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Uzbekistan and Philippines. It organises courses and seminars for umpiring, coaching and technical staff. The AHF is actively trying to get more Asian umpires to officiate at the Olympics and World Cup. Their main task is to organise the Asia Cup and other continental tournaments.

India will host the next edition of both the men's and women's Asia Cup, as well as the under-16 boys' and under-18 girls' tournaments. Sri Lanka will host the men's and women's AHF Club Champions' tournament.

he money continues to pour in for the Asiad gold medallists. The previous month's bulletin gave the comprehensive list of cash prizes presented to the team members. Awards presented in January were:

Donor	Amount	Recipient
Narayan Ago Ltd.	Plot of land	Dhanraj Pillai
Khadki Cantonment Board	Rs. 1 Lakh	Dhanraj Pillai
Bharat Petroleum	Rs. 1 Lakh	Sabu Varkey, Sandeep Somesh

he automatic qualifiers of the first Olympics of the new millenium are defending champions Holland and hosts Australia.

Each of the five continental champions qualifies automatically - Asia, Europe, Oceania, Pan America and Africa. The Asian Games championships were already held in 1998, where India won the gold after 32 long years and thus qualified for Sydney. The championships for the other four continents will be held in 1999.

Everybody else will have to go through the Olympic qualifying tournament in Osaka, Japan (March 9 - 19, 2000). 12 nations will participate in the Osaka pre-Olympic tournament. That list of countries includes South Korea and Pakistan from Asia. If Holland wins the European championships too (in addition to Olympics, World Cup and Champions Trophy that is already in its kitty), the list of qualifiers for Osaka will include European powerhouses Germany, Spain and England.

For the Pan-American representative, Argentina and Canada start as favourites. South Africa is likely to win the African Nations tournament, with Egypt providing strong competition.

All other countries that participated in the 1998 World Cup (Malaysia, New Zealand, Poland, etc.) and who are not continental champions, will also go to Osaka.

alaysia, Egypt, Spain, Ireland, Australia and Belgium have thrown their hat into the ring for the 2002 World Cup.

While Australia hosted the World Cup in 1994 (Sydney), the 1998 World Cup was held in Europe (Utrecht), making Malaysia and Egypt front runners for the first World Cup of the new millenium.

All countries have to submit their bid papers by February 15, and the FIH will announce the host by March 11.

Among the things requested by FIH in the World Cup bid are two adjacent pitches, four changing rooms, flood lighting, television facilities, and transport arrangements. Experience of having organised Olympic or World Cup qualifiers, Champions Trophy, Asian Games, Commonwealth Games or other FIH-sanctioned tournaments in the recent past would be a plus.

Asked if it was a requirement to host the men's and women's World Cup together as in the last series in Utrecht, Holland, Mary Coyle, communications manager of the FIH said there was no specific policy on this.

"Neither is there a policy that World Cup host should be rotated among the continents," she added.

anuary 24th marked the 75th anniversary of the creation of the International Hockey Federation, and over the next year, the FIH will be commemorating the occasion with a programme of events based on the theme, "Celebrating our Past, Building our Future."

The Organising Committee for the 75th Anniversary programme of events is being led by Executive Board member, Leandro Negre. The other members are: Robert Lycke, Michael Krause, Joke Bougon and Hans Bertels. There is not a single representative from the two most populous hockey countries - India and Pakistan.

The above point is important since the FIH has undertaken a project called Vision 2000, the result of which will form a mission and strategy plan for hockey for the coming 4-6 year period.

Vision 2000 aims to incorporate input from hockey experts and administrators from around the world on the following subjects: the role of the athlete, umpire, coach, other tournament officials; competitions, rules, equipment, marketing, sponsorship, development, promotion, international relations, media and communicating the message.

Also planned for the Anniversary programme is an exposition on hockey development to be co-ordinated by FIH President of Honour, Etienne Glichitch, and displayed at the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, Switzerland.

he Vice President of Mumbai-based Nimbus Television and Sports is this edition's Visitor of the Month. Uday Sinh Wala, a former Super League hockey player in Mumbai, was responsible for the television production of India's hockey matches in the Bangkok Asian Games.

At a time when ESPN-Star declined to telecast Asian Games hockey (because it was not cricket), and Doordarshan was not taking the initiative (as is usual), Nimbus stepped in to take care of the television production. Nimbus failed to make even with the advertisers but the large hockey loving audience in India got to see India win the gold after 32 years.

Nimbus has presented a 10 minute video of the Asian Games hockey to India Field Hockey website. We shall be putting it up on our website soon.