Hockey India rules out changing Rajpal as captain

NEW DELHI: Hockey India, on Tuesday, ruled out changing the captain of the senior national team and advised the players and coaches to keep their focus only on the World Cup starting this month.

Even though speculation is rife that Rajpal Singh may be replaced with popular choice Prabhjot Singh as captain, Hockey India secretary general Narinder Batra dismissed the suggestion.

He also denied receiving a letter from the team management supporting Prabhjot to lead the team in the February 28-March 13 event.

“We have received no letter from the team, asking us to name Prabhjot as captain in place of Rajpal. But I would like to make it clear that the decision of the selectors to continue with Rajpal as captain is final and binding,” Batra said.

“The selectors are all former players and experienced professionals and they have decided to continue with Rajpal in the World Cup. It was (chief coach Jose) Brasa who named Rajpal as the captain and there were no adverse reports on his captaincy from the team management,” Batra said.

Hinting that Hockey India was not amused with the players and the coaches taking so much interest in the matter, Batra said, “The players and coaches should not be indulging in technical decisions. The players’ job is to play and ensure that India achieves a podium finish in the World Cup and the coach’s is to guide them.”

It was learnt that Brasa held an emergency meeting at the team hotel on Monday, wherein the players were asked to vote for their choice of skipper for the 12-nation event.

Team sources said the majority voted for Prabhjot and the outcome was later conveyed to Hockey India.

Hockey India had retained Rajpal as skipper of the national team three days ago even though Brasa preferred Prabhjot for the job.