Chennai Cheetahs gets Chetri

National team captain and goalkeeper, Bharat Chetri, will turn out for Chennai Cheetahs while midfielder Gurbaj Singh will represent Delhi Wizards and penalty corner ace Sandeep Singh Karnataka Lions in the World Series Hockey tournament, scheduled to begin on December 17. WSH announced the players’ draft for inaugural edition on Monday, naming many on the Indian team now in Johannesburg for the FIH Champions Challenge.

Notable names

A couple of other notable names were Diwakar Ram for Pune Strykers and Dhanraj Pillay for Karnataka Lions.

Foreign players from Pakistan like Rehan Butt (Chandigarh), Waseem Ahmed (Bhopal) and Shakeel Abbasi (Delhi) were also named in draft list released.

Bhopal, Chandigarh, Chennai, Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai, Pune and Chandigarh will be the eight city-based franchise outfits that will take part in the competition.

Wizcraft International announced a tie-up with WSH to acquire the Delhi franchise.

As per rules for the same, each team figuring will be composed of a maximum only six foreign internationals and a minimum of four local players and four India youth internationals.

In the context of the controversy surrounding the event, Yannick Colaco, COO of Nimbus Sport, said: “Players signed up for the WSH, including Indian internationals, have agreed to accept the advance payment and commit to a written agreement.”

Pakistan players

On the participation of players from Pakistan, he clarified that no written communication from any official had reached him thus far.

The teams’ captains and coaches: Bhopal:Sardara Singh, V Bhaskaran;Chandigarh:Rehan Butt, Harender Singh;Chennai:Brent Livermore, Jose Brasa;Delhi:Lucas Vila, Roelant Oltmans;Bangalore:Arjun Halappa, Jude Felix;Mumbai:Adrian D’Souza, Andrew Meredith;Pune:Rodrigo Garcia, Gundeep Kumar;Chandigarh:Prabhjot Singh, Rajinder Singh.