Players get a day off for felicitation

BANGALORE: Around a dozen players will leave the national hockey camp for a day, this time with the permission of Hockey India, to attend an event in Hyderabad on Wednesday where they will be given plots of land for their achievement at the 2007 Asia Cup.

Prabodh Tirkey, who led the 2007 team, VR Raghunath, SV Sunil, Rajpal Singh, Gurbaj Singh, Roshan Minz, Vikramkanth, Tushar Khandker and Prabhjot Singh are among the players bound for Hyderabad. Amongst others, Dilip Tirkey, who is the government nominee now on the selection committee, has already reached Hyderabad.

The promise of 200 sq. yards each for the team members had been made to the entire squad and the coach by a Hyderabad builder after India claimed the 2007 Asia Cup in Chennai, where they beat South Korea in the final.

Sources said that HI’s permission was sought on Tuesday and was granted immediately. There was inevitable comparison with the way five players were penalised for having left the camp without permission to attend the World Series Hockey launch in Mumbai in July.