Hyderabad July 17: The arrival of K.P.S. Gill at 49th council meeting of the Asian Hockey Federation did not create expected ripples as the president of the disbanded Indian Hockey federation was eligible to attend the council till his term ends by 2010. “Any elected member of the council is supposed to attend the council meeting,” explained AHF secretary, Alagendra. Gill got elected as a vice-president of the Asian Hockey Federation in 2006.

Asked who they dealt with for the conduct of the Junior Asia Cup Hockey championship, Mr Alagendra said it was the Ad-hoc committee for Indian hockey as the latter had informed them that they were in charge of affairs of Indian hockey. “We will deal with the ad-hoc committee to develop the game here until a competent authority tells us not to,” Alagendra explained. He refused to elaborate on who the competent authority was though. Alagendra side-stepped questions about Gill’s presence at the meeting saying the matter was out of scope for the AHF meeting.

He kept the press conference to matters discussed to improve Asian Hockey. Talking about the plans, Alagendra said the senior Asian men’s tournament will be held in Dubai next year. The dates would be decided in a couple of months. He also announced a new tournament — Asian Champions Trophy — where the top four teams of the Asia Cup will participate.

Alagendra said an Asia-Euro Test series will also be introduced in order to improve the quality of Asian hockey. Talks are on with the European authorities, who have agreed to the proposal in principle, he said. “Players for this series will be picked basing on their performance at the Asian Cup and the Asian Champions Trophy tournaments,” Alagendra said.