HI to interview Dhanraj Pillay

New Delhi: Dhanraj Pillay is among the host of former players who will be interviewed by Hockey India (HI) over the weekend for the post of national coach.

Confirming this, an HI official said on Friday that 37 technical officials would appear for interview for different positions, including those of the coaches of the senior national men’s and women’s team and the junior squads.

“This is the first time such a process has been initiated. Even the support staff for different national teams would be selected during the interview,” said the official.

“We plan to shortlist the coaches and then send it to Sports Authority of India (SAI) for its approval,” he added. The selection of coaches will be done by the development committee of the HI, headed by Pargat Singh.

Apart from Pillay, the other prominent applicants are — Harendra Singh, Ramesh Parmeshwaran, Clarence Lobo, Baljit Saini, Riaz Mohammed, Ripudaman Singh and Jugraj Singh. Former national women’s coach of Malaysia, CR Kumar, has also applied for the men’s team job.