A 17-member Indian team has left for Singapore on Wedesday to take part in the 4-Nation Challenge Tournament being organized by the Singapore Hockey Federation. Besides India , Malaysia, Japan and the hosts Singapore are in the fray. Indian team led by goalkeeper Marita Tirkey, has trained for about a fortnight at Bhopal ;upon the tour.

The team has been trained by dronacharya award winning coach G.S. Bhangu.

According to Mr. Bhangu, the tour is another step towards preparing a strong Indian team for the 2010 Commonwealth Games which will be held in India.

Indian Women’s Hockey Team is defending Champion and winning this tournament for last 2 years.

Seven players from Gifu International Tournament which India won last month are in the present team. Average age of the team is 19, half of them are under 18.

India will taken on Malaysia in the opener on 8th, Singapore on next day before locking horns with Japan on 6th. There is no ranking matches the winner will be decided on league points.

1982 Asian Games gold medalist Anurita Saini will be the Asstt. Coach and Delhi’s Sunita Pant will be the Indian umpire accompanying the team.

Team: Marita Tirkey, Poonam Toppo, Ranjita Barla, Anjana Barla, Sarita Hanuman, Ritu Rani, Sushma Kiran Minz,
Reena Kanti Ekka, Eti Shrivastava, Rijuta Mullick, Manjari, Harmanjit Kaur, Kirandeep Kaur, Harpreet Kaur, Binita Xess, Chanchan Devi, Joydeep Kaur, Gurdial Singh Bhangu Coach, Anurita Saini Asstt. Coach, Sunita Pant Umpire