Ace forward Dhanraj Pillay will be the Technical Expert of the Mumbai based Maratha Warriors, one of the seven teams that will form part of this year’s edition of the hugely popular Premier Hockey League.
The team being led by Viren Rasquinha for the record fourth time in running, had an intensive training schedule at the Mahindra Hockey Stadium in Churgate, Mumbai, on Wednesday. Warriors played against the local outfit Western Railways where goals were galore.
Bombay Hockey Association in fact included Dhanraj Pillay for this year’s PHL, but the vengeful Indian Hockey Federation has all of sudden inserted a folly of age criterion in order to exclude the superstar. Though player of his age like Juan Escaree of Spain figured in the PHL in the past editions, his name was excluded as he was above 34. Originally the BHA asked Pillay to be one of the support coaches to chief coach Clarence Lobo. However, considering his stature, Pillay was designated as Technical Expertee with the team. One official commented: ”Like Special Invitee, he will be Technical Expertee”.
While confirming the new role, Pillay, who played for the Western Railways in the practice session, said that he would be coming to Chandigarh to be part of the team, “but only one or two days”. He was of the opinion that for him to be a coach is too early and he has in it to play more “to enjoy the game”.
That he enjoys the game is again proved when he prodded his Railways mates to go upfront, supplying gentle guile passes, a couple of them leading to goals, even at once shouting the Marathas to play “upward and snatch the ball’.
After missing a penalty corner rebound, Bharat Chikara scored a goal too. On asked whether the continuous schedule of the fourth PHL is Ok, he just said: ”Last time the long gap between matches were boring”.
Vikram Pillai, who represented Hyderabad Sultans all these years, switches over to home team Maratha Warriors for the first time. He was really under pressure to switch sides and it got a boost when Hyderabad Sultans’ captain Dilip Tirkey switched over to his home state team Orissa Steelers last year. “I was often asked when your captain can change sides, why can’t you”, said Pillai who seems to enjoys his unexpected home coming.
Coach Lobo and Manager Mukul Pandey stated that they will go all out this time as ‘We under-performed in the past”.