Some demotion of seniors. Some promotion for junior players. At least one long overdue but half-recall. This is in a nutshell the team for the Canada tour.

VS Vinaya and Ajitesh Rai have been demoted to standbye status while colts Danish Mujtaba and Dharamvir make the senior international grade.

Bharat Chetri, whose droppings have never been logically explained, makes a comeback but only as a standbye.

Roshan Minz on the otherhand comes fully, after a long gap. He last played at the 2008 Azlan Shah Cup. Arjuna Ignace is among the prominently missing ones.

One of the selectors could not attend the trails while the selection committee consisting of men and women players were believed to have attened the trails ‘earlier’.

Hockey India has announced the team the forthcoming long 7-match Canada Test series in Canada. The 22-member team will engage Canada between 02 and 25th October at two centres, Victoria and Vancouver, both traditional hockey bowls.

Goalkeepers

Adrian D’Souza
Sreejesh PR

Defenders

Sandeep Singh
V Raghunath
Sardar Singh

Midfielders

Gurbaj Singh
Vikram Pillay
Dhananjay Mahadik
Dharamvir Singh
Birendar Lakra – Sr.
Danish Mujtaba

Forwards

Bharat Chikara
Arjun Halappa
Tushar Khandker
Rajpal Singh
Gurvinder Singh Chandi
Prabhjot Singh
S V Sunil
Shivendra Singh
Sarwanjit Singh
Roshan Minz
Amir Khan

Standbys

Mandip Antil
Birendra Lakra – Jr.
Bharat Chetri
V S Vinaya
Ajitesh Roy

The Match Schdule is as under :

1st Test October 9th Victoria

2nd Test October 11th Victoria

3rd Test October 14th Vancouver

4th Test October 16th Vancouver

5th Test October 18th Vancouver

6th Test October 22nd Vancouver

7th Test October 24th Vancouver

The Selection Committee comprising Col. Balbir Singh, B.P.Govinda, Madhu Yadav and Sita Mehta alongwith Government observers Ajitpal Singh and Zafar Iqbal attended the selection trials held at Pune earlier.

This tour is part of Hockey India’s effort to provide comprehensive practice ahead of the Champions Challenge I Tournament at Salta, Argentina in December and further build up for the 2010 World Cup at New Delhi.