With almost all other teams settled with minor additions and omissions for the upcoming third edition of Hero Hockey India League, its Mumbai’s new teams Dabang Mumbai turned out to be the cynosure of all eyes today when the details of the closed bid was disclosed at Holiday Inn hotel in New Delhi.
The team also had many trumps to show as if to increase the suspense element.
Dabang Mumbai spent maximum amount on a single players, packed half the team with midfielders, while its coach is not a big name compared to the limes of Oltmans and Dancers, but hugely potential, and present Junior German National team coach.
Dabang Mumbai packs as many as 12 midfielders out of 24 members, as the closed bid for the third Hero Hockey India league was disclosed today in New Delhi.
This is not the lone surprise from the Mumbai metro’s new HIL avtar, Dabang Mumbai.
They have spent a huge sum, USD 103,000 — highest for any player so far in the three year old HIL — to acquire Tom Boon, a Belgium star.
The second highest earner, Mathew Swamm, also goes to the Dabang’s account.
Tom Boon is talk of the town what with USD 103k for a four-week tournament, giving for a while is it hockey league or something football.
Ever since Netherlands’ successful coach Mark Lammers took up the coaching of Belgium, the all rounder Tom has been in the news, what with his excellent work upfront, and also with drag flicks in the penalty corner situations.
Coach Valentin Attenburg was the former coach of Stuttgart HC, where Viren Rasquinha, VS Vinaya had a stint in the early 2000s.
Incidentally, the youngest mentor in the HIL canvass Viren opted for youngest coach of the HIL.
Visiting first time to India, Valentin was all calm and composed to face media today.
Mumbai team’s another surprise today was inclusion of a Czech Republic player Tomas Prochazka.
“He is a tall guy, with huge energy and enterprise in whatever he does. He is a good defender and will be a great strength to our team. I know his talent well, as he is playing in the German league”, said Valentin.
Mumbai franchise somehow had not clicked well in the past two editions, finishing last in the first edition with Ric Charlesworth as coach and then last but one stage in the last season with MK Kaushik as the chief coach.
Dabur Mumbai’s magic did not work, now with the new team and franchise things look better
The Dabang Team: Adrian D’Souza, Anup Walmiki, Nilakanta Sharma, Harmanpreet Singh, VS Vinaya, Amit Gowda, Tyron Pereira, Santa Singh, Rajat Sharma, Chinglensana Singh, Vikas Pillay, Bharat, Arjun Halappa, Vikram Pillay, Tom Boon, Mathew Swan, Glenn Turner, David Harte, Jeremh Hayward, Nick Catlin, Timothy Deavin, Tomoas Prochazka, Floris Evers, Conor Harte.