Times of India: HIL should give me edge over German teammates: Furste
By Ritu Sejwal
NEW DELHI: With less than seven months to go for the Rio Olympics, the Hockey India League (HIL) would provide the India hopefuls and other top international stars the perfect stage to get into the best shape.
Kalinga Lancers’ Moritz Furste believes HIL will give him an edge over his German teammates who are busy playing indoor hockey back home due to freezing conditions. “It is very cold in Germany now, so nobody is playing outdoor hockey. They are all playing indoor hockey. At HIL, I will get the opportunity to play outdoors and speed up my game even before the rest of my teammates get back to outdoor hockey sometime around March or April,” Furste said at the unveiling of the HIL trophy.
Skippers of the six teams – Raghunath (Uttar Pradesh Wizards), Ashley Jackson (Ranchi Rays), Sardar Singh (Jaypee Punjab Warriors), Furste (Kalinga Lancers), Nikkin Thimmaiah (Dabang Mumbai) and Simon Child (Delhi Waveriders) – were all present at the function.
Kalinga Lancers will host Uttar Pradesh Wizards in Bhubaneshwar in the opening match on January 18. “It’s good to be back to the place where my team Germany won the Champions Trophy. The crowd supported us against Pakistan in the final. I hope we get that support again,” he said.
The fourth edition of the league will see the introduction of new scoring rules whereby a field goal will be counted as two while the penalty corners continue to be counted as one goal. Speaking on the change, Furste said the new rule will allow teams to change the final result in concluding minutes of the match. “The rule change will make the game more exciting but I don’t think it will have a big impact and penalty corners will still be very important in the game. FIH invented this rule because we don’t see many field goals these days,” the German said.