All eyes on Michael Jack Nobbs as camp set to begin

By Vivek Phadnis | Place: Mumbai | Agency: DNA

It is time to begin afresh as Australian coach Michael Jack Nobbs has taken charge of the Indian men’s hockey team. The national camp is scheduled to begin here on Friday, while Nobbs and Hockey India director of coaching SS Grewal will join on Sunday.

Training at full steam is expected to start only by Monday.

Nobbs will be in the camp for five days and return to Australia to settle things there before moving to India. He is expected to return towards the end of the month. In his absence, Grewal will be in charge of the camp. Clarence Lobo, Mohammad Riaz, Jugraj Singh, BJ Cariappa and Baljit Singh Saini will be the assistant coaches.

It was decided pretty late that the camp would be held at the Sports Authority of India Southern Centre, thanks mainly to the good weather here. That has got the SAI authorities working pretty hard to get the turf cleaned up and floodlights focused properly. SAI regional director G Kishore swung into action and got the cleaning work started. In fact, SAI is seeking help from Madras Engineer Group in the cleaning-up operations and is confident of finishing it in a couple of days. While the main turf has water sprinkler, watering of the second turf will have to be done manually.

“We are happy with the facilities at SAI. Everything is in the same place and the weather is good. The turfs should be clean in a couple of days,” said Hockey India executive director Anupam Gulati, who was on a visit here to have a look at the facilities.
Gulati, while saying that Bangalore would be the centre for men’s team camps, explained the programme: “The 90 who will initially attend the camp will be pruned to 48. The remaining will be split into the development, sub-junior teams etc.

“After the one-month camp, they’ll take a short break and be back in August. The men’s team will then play in the first Asian Champions Trophy in Ordos (China) early in September. After that will be the four-nation tournament in Amritsar and Jalandhar in which Pakistan, New Zealand, Argentina and India will take part. Then, After that, they will go to Australia in October for a couple of tournaments,” he added. The players will naturally go to New Delhi a few days before the Champions Trophy and Olympic Qualifying Tournament to acclimatise and get used to the ground conditions.