No place for Pillay in new hockey selection panel
Sep 17, 2009 Dhanraj Pillay’s association with Indian hockey seems to be over. After being out of the team for long, his tenure as a selector has also come to an end after Hockey India announced a new selection committee on Wednesday as the national team sweat it out in Pune.

In keeping with its decision to have a single unit for both men’s and women’s hockey in the country, the new committee will be responsible for all team selections. And from among the previous selectors, only Ajitpal Singh and Zafar Iqbal remain in the new body — both as government observers. While Ashok Kumar and Aslam Sher Khan had already tendered their resignations in protest against the working of Hockey India, Dhanraj has been removed as a selector.

“All committees automatically become non-existent with the ad-hoc committee being dissolved and Hockey India being formed,” HI secretary Mohd Aslam Khan had said in June, adding that they would continue till new committees were in place.

“All former committees became null when the ad-hoc committee was dissolved and Hockey India was formed. They were continuing only till the formation of a new committee,” he said.

The new selection committee includes Olympians Col Balbir Singh, Muneer Sait and BP Govinda while Madhu Yadav and Sita Gusain represent women’s hockey. Of the five, only Govinda has been a selector before, during the IHF regime under KPS Gill. Sita, on the other hand, is the youngest of the lot and was part of the 2002 Commonwealth Games-winning Indian team.

There is no question that the new faces in the selection committee lack the stature of Dhanraj or Ashok Kumar but sources say that, in fact, that may well be their advantage. “They may not be as famous names as the former selectors but they are well respected and know the game. They are also non-controversial,” said a Hockey India official.

The first assignment for the new committee will be selecting the squad for the seven-match series against Canada in October.