Vinaya back in India fold
MANUJA VEERAPPA
Few can question his commitment, skills and fitness, yet, for over a year now, midfielder V.S Vinaya has failed to figure in the Indian hockey team, despite being a regular at camps.
His career has been on the downslide as the Air India employee missed out on all the crucial tournaments last year including the World Cup, Commonwealth and the Asian Games. In July this year, clouds of doubt over his international career thickened with his name missing for the list of 90 probables who were called
for a camp when Australian Michael Nobbs took over as coach.
“I was very disappointed when I did not find myself among the probables in July this year.
But like always I did not lose heart and I continued to train and work hard,“ Vinaya said. Last week, Vinaya’s c a r e e r received a fresh lease of life, with Nobbs recalling the 28 year-old from Coorg for the camp. Vinaya left for Barcelona to play in the Spanish League and will join the camp in November after the national team national team return from Australia.
“I had a good meeting with coach Nobbs who has asked me to join the camp. Since I have already committed to the Spanish League, I will join the camp in November,“ he said.
The surprise cording to Nobbs recall, according to Nobbs is a part of his plan. “As I said at the start of my tenure, we want to make sure we don not miss out on anyone. It is worth having everybody, whoever they are and wherever they are, even if they are playing overseas. We want the best players for the Olympic qualifiers,” is Nobbs’ view.
On picking Vinaya, he said, “A couple of players told me to have a look at him. If he is a specialist right half, we have a rotation system and if Gurbaj gets injured we don’t have a player of that ability in the team to replace him.” Nobbs though added that there was no guarantee of Vinaya earning a national team recall since he is yet to see him play.