The Hindu: State team for senior Nationals

Dismissing whispers that the Tamil Nadu men’s hockey team (for the senior Nationals in Saifai, UP from April 8 to 21) was selected based more on quota system and less on merit, Chelladurai Abdullah, President of the Hockey Unit of Tamil Nadu, reiterated that this is the “best available talent and we have done our best.”

Chelladurai, who was in the city on Tuesday to see the on-going State camp, further said there will be no pruning of players and the list is final. “We don’t want to do that as that will give rise to needless complications,” he said.

“Six-hundred and forty players from 32 districts took part in the inter-district tournament in the newly-laid turf at Ramanathapuram District in the first week of March. Out of that, we selected 50 players and then pruned it to 23 with five stand-byes,” said Chelladurai.

The notable players who have been left out from previous Nationals are V. Raja, Vinod Rayer, Arul Stalin David, Shanmugam, Damu and Allen Rajesh. And their omission has caused heartburn in hockey circles. Chelladurai, however, said the team does have players with some experience in Kiran Raj, Gnanavel and Aravinth to guide the team, comprising mostly of youngsters.

The President revealed that Mohd. Riaz and C.R. Kumar were approached for the coaches’ job, but they declined citing prior commitments. “We even thought about Olympian V.J. Philips, but since he is with the women’s team, we decided against it,” said Chelladurai.

Tamil Nadu is paired with J&K, Bihar & Madhya Bharat in Pool A of the ‘B’ division. TN will play its first match against Bihar on April 14.

The team: Goalkeepers: L. Manikandan, V. Vineeth Raj; Defenders: Gnanavel, A. Aravinth, P. Nambi Ganesh; Midfielders: R. Raj Kumar, R.T. Raghu Ram, R.S. Sunil Moorthi, M. Mani Maran, M. Deepa Ganesh; Forwards: Anand, S. Silver Stalin, M. Kannan, M. Hassan Basha, S. John, Selva Kumar, S. Niranjan Sai Ganesh, E. Kiran Raj; Stand-byes: Goalkeeper: T. Arun Gandhi, Defender: S.T. Muthu Kumar; Midfielders: R. Kalidos, R. Gokul Raj, Forward: S. Sounder Pandi. Coach: Raj Kumar; Manager: Senthil Raj Kumar.