India to blood juniors players at tournament

India are in the process of team rebuilding and have 11 junior players in their ranks for the Sultan Azlan Shah hockey tournament.

Team manager Ramesh Parameswaram said that they were exposing young players to senior internationals following India's failure to qualify for the Olympics in August.

India, who have won the Olympic gold medal eight times, failed to make the cut to the Beijing Games in the qualifying tournament in Chile in February, losing 0-2 to Britain in the final.

It will be the first time since the 1928 Olympics that India will not feature in the Games.

Ramesh added that the Sultan Azlan tournament was also part of their preparation for the Junior Asia Cup, which they will host in Hyderabad in July.

“It will also be a qualifying tournament for the Junior World Cup next year (to be jointly hosted by Malaysia and Singapore). The juniors players are also being prepared for the 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi,'' he said.

Ramesh added that they had a good set of junior players and would be banking on defender Diwakar Ram to deliver goals from penalty corners.

The 18-year-old drag flicker was the top scorer in an eight-nation junior invitational tournament in Bukit Jalil in January with 12 goals.

Penalty corner specialist Sandeep Singh, who skipped the 2006 World Cup in Germany because of a foot injury, is also in the team. Goalkeeper Adrian Dsouza, who did not feature in the Olympic qualifiers, was also named for the tournament in Ipoh.

Only five players who featured in the Olympic qualifiers will feature in the Sultan Azlan tournament. They are V. R. Raghunath, Sardar Singh, Gurbaj Singh, Vikram Kanth and Shivendra Singh.

The team under the charge of A.K. Bansal will open their campaign against New Zealand today.

Ramesh said that he hoped the players would spring a surprise against the Kiwis, who have qualified for the Olympics.