New Delhi, Dec. 20 :    New Delhi, Dec. 20:  The Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) today sacked national coach Vasudev Baskaran for failing to produce a good performance in the 2000 Sydney Olympics. He was replaced by IHF president K.P.S. Gill's favourite, Cedric D'Souza. The move comes a couple of months after Gill's statement, following the Sydney disaster, that heads would not roll. D'Souza was in charge during the Sydney World Cup in 1994 and the Atlanta Olympics in 1996. The IHF sprung a surprise by appointing Bangkok Asian Games gold medallist, goalkeeper Ashish Ballal as the assistant coach. He will coach the five goalkeepers for the World Cup qualifying tournament in Scotland in July 2001. Besides Ballal, D'Souza will be assisted by C.R. Kumar while the Barcelona based Ranjit Singh has been designated as the expert. A psychologist, Dr J. P. S. Sidhu, has also been appointed for the players. Olympian skipper Ramandeep Singh, Mukesh Kumar and Mohammed Riaz were also dropped from the 43 shortlisted for the 2002 World Cup. Calcutta-born Baljit Singh Saini is in contention to lead India. He, though, is expected to face tough competition from Sukhbir Singh Gill. Justifying the trio's exclusion, Gill said: 'They are over the hill, we don't think they can do much for Indian hockey now, that is why we dropped them to pave way for the promising youngsters.' Interestingly, Mukesh played a pivotal role in Indian Airlines win in the 60th senior national championship in Jammu last week, but IHF secretary Jyothikumaran claimed that the verstile winger was not considered for the camp as he had announced his 'retirment' from the international circuit. Ramandeep did not play in the nationals as he got married just before the start of the meet. The PROBABLES Goalkeepers: Devesh Chauhan (IOC), Jude Menezes (Mumbai), Jagdish Ponappa (IA), K N Subbiah (J&K), Robindro Singh (CRPF). Fullbacks: Dilip Tirkey, Lazarys Barla (both IA), Dinesh Naik (TN), Aftab Ahmed, Anurag Raghuvanshi (both UP), Iqbal Singh (J&K), Len Aiyappa (IA)c.Halfbacks: S. S. Gill (Chandigarh), Paramjit Singh (Services), Prabhat Saini (CRPF), Harmeek Singh (Punjab), Jaswinder Singh (IOC), Nirmal Bengra (Bengal), Taqdir Singh (J&K), Mohd Kalim (UP), Satish Kumar (Railways), Arjun Halappa (Karnataka), Radhakrishnan (TN), Bimal Lakra (IA), Thirumal Valavan (IA), Baljit Singh Saini (P&SB). Forwards: Samir Dad (IA), Deepak Thakur, Prabhjot Singh (both IOC), Gagan Ajit Singh (Mumbai), Baljit Chandi (P&SB), Brojen Singh (IA), Daljit Singh Dhillon (Punjab), Dung Dung (Hyderabad), Bipin Fernandes (Mumbai), Harbhajan Singh (BSF), Gurjeet Singh (J&K), Anoop Anthony (Karnatka), Senthil (TN), Ravinder Singh (IA), Chander Pal (Railways), Dhanraj Pillay (Mumbai), Baljit Singh Dhillon (Punjab).