Times of India: Player unavailability: Top three teams pull out of Gold Cup

By Sudheendra Tripathi

MUMBAI: The 13th edition of the PMC Bank-Guru Tegh Bahadur All India Hockey Gold Cup tournament has lost a bit of its sheen even before it could get a proper start. Defending champions Western Railway, last year’s runners up Punjab and Sindh Bank and the high-flying Air India have all pulled out of the tournament citing non-availability of players. Western Railway have lost a few players to injuries and a couple of others – Amit Rohidas and Neelkant Sharma – to national duty. A few others have gone back home to attend to “some serious issues”.

“Being a local team and not being able to participate in such a big tournament is frustrating,” Western Railway manager Hari Mohan Sharma told TOI.

“But we don’t have any option. We can’t even field a proper playing XI. Many of our players are injured, a couple of them are away at the national camp in Bengaluru, while two others have rushed back to be with their folks. Their problem is so grave that we couldn’t stop them,” said Sharma.

Sharma, however, assured that the team will participate in the Mumbai Super Division League, which gets under way next month. “Sure we will miss out on the Gold Cup but the handful of boys that we already have are training for the Super Division League. We are hoping that by the time the league starts, we will be back to full strength,” Sharma said.

Air India, who are struggling with recruitments, and the Punjab and Sindh Bank also have player availability issues and have therefore decided to skip this edition of the tournament.

Meanwhile, South Central Railway (SCR), Secundrabad, rallied in splendid fashion to put it across Indian Navy, Mumbai, 3-1 in a Pool A league match on Monday. Aiyappa PR (25th min & 70th min) and Raju Pal (40th) scored for the Secundrabad team, while Indian Navy scored through Jugraj Singh (8th min).