Imphal, May 22: Manipur Hockey Association secretary Th. Manihar Singh said experts should have been involved in the selection trials to induct players into the Indian Hockey Federation’s Youth Development Programme (under-18) for 2007-2010 in the Northeast zone.
Appreciating the federation’s ambitious project, which aims to resurrect Indian hockey, he said a talent hunt of this magnitude should have included experienced hands.
“There is no dearth of experts in the region. The federation should at least have formed a committee of experts drawn from the participating states,” he said. “We appeal to the IHF to hunt out experts and let them have a say in the programme.”
The two experts deputed for the trials, Harinder Singh and A.K. Bansal did not show up on the selection day.
For the Northeast Zone — comprising Manipur, Assam, Mizoram, Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland — the zonal convenors are headed by IPS officers H. Khiangte (Mizoram) and G.M. Srivastava (Assam). Srivastava is also the president of the Tripura Hockey Association.
As part of the programme, 40 players aged between 16 and 18 will be selected from across the country after being screened at six zonal centres. The zonal centres are categorised as south, west, central, east, north and Northeast. The players will be trained for four years for the Junior World Cup in 2009 and the Commonwealth Games in 2010.
Singh said he had been instructed by Srivastava to prepare five players each for the under-18 and under-20 teams. “But I sought permission to prepare 10 players each for the two age-group teams from the state and attended the trials held in Guwahati on May 9 and 10,” he said.
The selection trials consisted of a 2.4-km-long run, 30-m sprint and 6.10 shuttle run. “How can one judge hockey skills and select the best players by testing how fast they run? No new trend can be set if the selection process is faulty from the beginning,” Singh said, pointing out that selection guidelines stipulate specific skill tests for hockey.
Some of the players who took part in the trials were disappointed with the process, saying they had expected to demonstrate skills specific to the sport.
