Hockey India to hire only current players

Hockey India (HI) announced here today that it would recruit only the best talent from India and the world’s most coveted current stars, and not “discarded or retired players”, for the proposed franchisee-based Men’s Hockey League, scheduled for 2013. HI said the matches will be played on a home-and-away basis and will be “showcased together in fast and furious prize money combats”.

HI’s proposed league is intended to counter the World Series Hockey (WSH), to be organised by the Indian Hockey Federation (IHF), from December this year. HI said it had requested the International Hockey Federation (FIH) to give a 45-day window for the league and not to hold any other tournament during this period.

The HI League has been scheduled for 2013 as next year will be the year of the London Olympics. “It is every sportsman’s ultimate desire to don the National colours at the Olympic Games and stand on the podium with a medal hanging from the neck,” HI noted. Incidentally, it was at London in 1948 that Independent India won their first Olympic hockey gold medal.