t was an unusual meeting on the lawns of IHF President K. P. S. Gill's Talkatora Road residence. A core group of officials - K.P. S. Gill, K. Jyothikumaran, Cedric D'Souza, Zafar Iqbal, M. M. Somayya, Ajitpal Singh and Joaquim Carvalho sat in one corner of the lawn. The coaches - Pargat Singh, V. Bhaskaran, C. R. Kumar, Ramesh Parameswaran and Balwinder Singh awaited their fate a few steps away. After a long huddle, and much after the team for the Indo-Pak series was already announced, the officials came up with the name of Bhaskaran as the new national hockey coach of India.

Vasudevan Bhaskaran, who came into the national spotlight after taking India to the final of the Junior World Cup in Milton Keynes, showed that he meant business. The Moscow Olympics gold medal winning captain called for the omission of four seasoned players, Dhanraj Pillai, Gavin Fereira, Mukesh Kumar and Ramandeep Singh, describing them as all over the hill. He said "I have a lot of respect for them as they have played more than 700 matches combined for India. But, going by their performance against the Germans, we cannot hide the fact they are all over the hill."

With just 5 months to go before the World Cup, Bhaskaran expressed concern that India was the only hockey playing nation yet to finalise its World Cup squad. He emphasized that proper planning was necessary by the IHF to come up with a list of 20 players, on the basis of their performance and not seniority.

argat Singh, who had tackled many rampaging forwards with effortless ease for a decade and a half, had his defence rendered futile by the IHF politics. Two days after being conferred with the Padma Shree for his contribution to Indian hockey, Pargat Singh was unceremoniously handed his sack letter by the IHF. Stripped of the chief national coach's post, he was offered a compromise formula in the form of a coaching assignment with the development team, which the slighted Pargat summarily rejected.

Pargat expressed surprise over the IHF's decision. He said that such frequent change of coaches would only do harm to Indian hockey. "When they appointed me, they said I would be in charge for four years, but they ousted me after four months,'' said the Olympian and former India captain. Pargat said that he had submitted a plan for reviving Indian hockey, but instead of accepting it, they had replaced him. Pargat pointed out, "IHF has not committed even to the new coach Bhaskaran that he would be the coach for a specific term."

The President of the IHF, Mr. K. P. S. Gill said that Pargat Singh had expressed his inability to continue as coach as he was occupied with the publication of a hockey magazine he had recently launched. Pargat, however, said the magazine project was known to the IHF officials even before he took up the chief coach's appointment. "It is nothing, if not a betrayal," Pargat told reporters. "Players are just jokers in the circus and there is no one to look after their cause. Whatever happened is not for the benefit of the game."

hampions Trophy holders Germany, coached by the legendary Paul Lissek, embarked on a four-test series with India. The German squad of 25 was headed by Mike de Vries, General Secretary of the German Hockey Federation.

Centre-forward Dhanraj Pillai made his debut as the India captain for the series against Germany, while Vasudevan Bhaskaran and C. R. Kumar were the Chief Coach and Assistan Coach of the Indian team.

Germany won the 4-test series 3-0. The scores are as follows:

1st Test : Germany beat India 3-2
Date	January 5, 3 pm
Venue	Mayor Radhakrishnan Stadium, Chennai
Goal Scorers - Germany	Kai Hollensteiner (10) Patrick Ballenbaum (17, ~40)
Goal Scorers - India	Gavin Ferriera (9) Harbhajan Singh (61)
Crowd	8,000
Media Coverage	Live on Doordarshan and Chennai 'A'
2nd Test : Germany beat India 2-0
Date	January 7, 3 pm
Venue	Akkithimmanahalli Stadium, Bangalore
Goal Scorers - Germany	Christoph Bechmann (3, 44)
Goal Scorers - India
Crowd	7,000 (full house)
Media Coverage	Live on Doordarshan
3rd Test : Germany draw with India 1-1
Date	January 9, 3 pm
Venue	Guru Hargobind Stadium, Amritsar (GNDU campus)
Goal Scorers - Germany	Michael Bjorn (33)
Goal Scorers - India	Rajeev Mishra (24)
Crowd	8,000 (full house)
Media Coverage
4th Test : Germany beat India 3-2
Date	January 11, 3 pm
Venue	National Stadium, New Delhi
Goal Scorers - Germany	Marc Schreiber (20, 27, 31)
Goal Scorers - India	Rajeev Mishra (68), Gavin Ferreira (69)
Crowd	Moderate
Media Coverage	Live on Doordarshan (DD1)

In a sporting gesture, the Union Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports agreed to bear the cost of domestic travel for both the teams. India will play a reciprocal 4-test series in Germany in August this year.

he win-loss record for India-Germany matches, as of February 1, 1998 are:

Number of Matches : 55
Victories for Germany : 24
Victories for India : 11
Drawn Matches : 20

In the last 29 matches, India has won only once, while losing 17 times. This lone victory came in the finals of the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup in 1995, in the tie-breaker. Germany will be the first opponent of India in the 1998 World Cup in Utrecht.

he IHF had accepted an invitation 6 months ago to participate in the prestigious Azlan Shah Cup at the Bukit Jalil Hockey Stadium from February 28 - March 9. However, due to the recently announced India-Pakistan hockey revival also scheduled for the same time, the IHF went back on its word and decided to send its junior team instead to Malaysia. The MHF said, No thanks.

MHF deputy president Datuk Seri P. Alagendra said that the MHF has decided to withdraw the invitation to India. "We had informed all the invited teams six months ago that they must send their first team. It will be unfair for us to accept a junior team from IHF, as the other teams will be fielding their first teams. So, we decided to withdraw India's invitation," said Alagendra.

MHF secretary S. Satgunam said it was unsporting of India to confirm their entry way back, and then inform at the last minute that they were giving priority to the India-Pakistan series. "Why did they agree to the clash of dates while agreeing to the test series. This is unfair to us. We spent a lot of money on this tournament and the least we expect is for the teams to take the meet seriously," said Satgunam.

Germany, England, Australia and New Zealand are the other invited teams. Reserve team South Korea will now participate in place of India. They are all sending their national teams. India had won the title once, in 1995, defeating Germany in the finals. South Korea lifted the Azlan Shah Cup in 1996, defeating Australia in the finals.

24-member probable list has been announced for the forthcoming Indo-Pak hockey series. The players will undergo a camp at NIS, Patiala from February 5, and an 18-member squad will leave for Pakistan on February 26. The list includes eight of the Junior World Cup players who led India to a silver medal finish. The probables are:

Position	List of Probables
Goalkeepers	A. B. Subbiah (IA), Jagdish Ponnappa (Mumbai), B. A. Bopanna (Karnataka), R. V. S. Prasad (Services)
Backs	Dilip Tirkey (IA), Lazarus Barla (Railways), Ajay Kumar (AI Academy), Anil Aldrin (AI), Dinesh Nayak (TN)
Halves	Sukhbir Singh Gill (Chandigarh), Mohammad Riaz, Thirumalvalavan (TN), Ramandeep Singh (Punjab), Anwar Khan (Railways), Baljit Singh Saini (PSB)
Forwards	Dhanraj Pillay (Mumbai - captain), Mukesh Kumar (IA), Rajeev Mishra (Railways), Gavin Fereira (Mumbai), Harbhajan Singh (BSF), Rajesh Chauhan (AI), Samir Dad, Brojen Singh and Altaf-ur Rehman (IA)
Officials	Chief Coach - V. Bhaskaran, Assistant Coach - C. R. Kumar, Manager - M. M. Somayya

wo expatriate Indians are the head coaches of the national hockey teams of Canada and USA respectively. Shiaz Virjee is Canada's coach, while Shiv Jagdev is the US National Coach. Both were members of the Vancouver Hawks Field Hockey Club. Shiaz Virjee has been the Canadian men's coach for the last four years, while Shiv Jagde has just been appointed the US Field Hockey Coach.

Jagdev, who is an FIH-certified coach, has conducted Olympic Solidarity Coaching Courses for various national teams, coaches and athletes. His career graph, while coaching the Canadian team from 1982-1986, is as follows:

Year	Tournament	Location	Placing
1982	Junior World Cup		Canada's First Ever Entry
1983	Pan Am Games	Caracas	Gold Medal
1984	Olympic Games	Los Angeles	10th
1985	Inter-Continental Cup	Barcelona	4th
1986	Senior World Cup	Willesden	10th

rs. Narayan Kaur (65), mother of four international players, including an Olympian, died of kidney complications on January 19. Mrs. Kaur's eldest and youngest daughters - Prema and Rupa - led the national women's hockey team for 12 of 20 years between 1960 and 1980. The other two sisters are Krishna and Swarna, and all four sisters played at the university, state and national level over a period of two decades without disruption - a feat unprecedented in the annals of world sports.

Mrs. Narayan Kaur's husband, Mr. Nathuram Saini, is a retired peon from Goverment Brijendra College, Faridkot. Her son is a Class IV employee working in Faridkot. Between them, they just did not have the resources for the twice-a-week dialysis and the medicines required.

For the past two years, Rupa, a college lecturer in Physical Education, had been looking after her mother and spending about Rs 3,000 a week on her treatment. Rupa gets about as much as salary. Rupa, who went to the Moscow Olympics as skipper of Indian team, made representations to higher authorities for help and assistance for the past two years but without any success. Mrs Kaur died before any financial help could reach her or the Saini sisters. Mrs Narayan Kaur was cremated at Faridkot, her native place.

month-long camp of the senior women's hockey probables began at the National Institute of Sports, Patiala, on January 5. Out of the 27 probables who were asked to report to the camp, two-thirds are from the Railways. This brings out Indian Railways deep commitment to women's hockey in India. The list of probables is given below :

Position	List of Probables
Goalkeepers	Helen Mary, Suman Deswal, Tingongleima Chanu (all Railways), Deepika Murthy (Gujarat)
Full / Half Backs	Sandeep Kaur, Mary Stella Tirkey, Renu Bala, Shashi Bala, Mukta Xalxo (all Railways), Suman Bala (Haryana), Helen Soy (Bihar), Sunita Dalal (Chandigarh), Sita Gossain, Sumrai Tete, Lakshmishree (all Railways)
Forwards	Neha Singh (UP), Nidhi Khullar, Ferdina Ekka, Manjinder Kaur, Pritam Thakran, Kamla Dalal, Suraj Lata Devi, Jyoti S. Kullu (all Railways), Sangai Ibemhal (Manipur), Surinder Kaur (Haryana), Masira Surin (Bihar)
Officials	Chief coach - Col. Balbir Singh, Assistant Coach - C. A. Poonacha

14-member Habib Public School (HPS) hockey squad concluded a 21-day goodwill visit of India, winning 4 and losing 4 out of 8 matches. The scores were :

Match	Result
Game 1	beat Modern School, Delhi 4-2
Game 2	lost to Panipat XI, Haryana 0-4
Game 3	beat St. Joseph's College, Delhi 2-1
Game 4	lost to Aligarh Muslim University, UP 1-3
Game 5	beat DAV Higher Secondary School, Faridabad 3-0
Game 6	lost to Shia College, Lucknow 0-1
Game 7	lost to Air India Sports Academy, Delhi 0-2
Game 8	beat Father Agnel School, Delhi 1-0
Game 9	vs. St. Joseph's College, Agra, abandoned due to rains

On the last day of the tour, the Habibians met the Indian Prime Minister I. K. Gujral. The Indian Prime Minister extended an invitation to the Habibians to visit South India during the coming vacations to play matches and for sight-seeing.

his edition's Visitor of the Month features Evan Alvia, Secretary General, Philippine Amateur Hockey Association, who writes :

Greetings from the Philippines ! Just found out about your page through the Pakistan hockey web site. It is very heartwarming to know that hockey is very much alive in Asia.

We hope to do correspondence with your association soon through competitions, seminars and exchange programs.

Due to the Asian currency crisis and the low level of play of our national teams, we cannot commit to send a team to the Asian Games. However, rest assured that we will send a representative to the Games. Hope that you can strike gold in Bangkok. Play hard for the gold! Best Regards, Evan Alvia.