Rajpal backs Hockey League

Kusum Arora

Indian Hockey team skipper, Rajpal Singh, buoyant about the recently-announced World Hockey League, said today that the series would benefit the players and give a much-needed fillip to the sport in India. “Some sense should prevail with Hockey India (HI) to help the game grow,” Rajpal said, adding that there is still a year to go for the million-dollar prize money tournament.

The Indian Hockey Federation (IHF), along with some private promoters, had announced the launch of the World Hockey Series in December last year. Rajpal was here as chief guest on the concluding day of the Balwant Singh Kapur Memorial hockey tournament.

Talking about the HI’s response of banning the players participating in the World Series, Rajpal said emphatically, “The players have just signed the agreement with Nimbus Sports and IHF and have not started playing yet. The tournament will take place around this year-end or in the beginning of 2012 and it is yet to be seen how it will executed.” Asked about the Indian team’s preparations for next year’s London Olympics, Rajpal said, “Right now, the team combination is good and it will definitely benefit us in the qualifying rounds for the Olympics.”

The skipper even said that though the team could not register a win in the Commonwealth Games and the Asian Games, it has surely come a long way. Talking about Spanish coach Jose Brasa’s relation with the team, the skipper said that he was an excellent coach and the team improved a lot under his training.

“There is no doubt that despite our defeats we performed well. The team is in good form and at this point all that we require is a good coach to further upgrade us ahead of the Olympics,” he stressed.

Answering a query on whether the team requires a foreign coach, Rajpal said Indian or foreign did not matter. What mattered was ‘good character’. “As a team, we want to improve further and excel in the game. Moreover, the process to select the coaches is on and we would be getting one soon.”