liver Domke of Germany was adjudged the Best Player (Men) of the 1998 World Cup, and Ramon Jufresa of Spain the most outstanding goalkeeper. Shahbaz Ahmed was awarded The Most Sporting Player of the Tournament Trophy. In addition to the bronze medal, the German team walked off with the prize for the best behaved team.

Alyson Annan was adjudged Best Player (Women) of the 1998 World Cup; she was also the tournament's leading scorer with a tally of eight goals. Argentina's goalkeeper Laura Estela Mulhall was named the Best Goalkeeper of the competition. 

New Zealand's Mandy Smith was named the most electrifying personality of the tournament. The other two personality awards went to Argentina's vice-captain Magdalena Aicega, and Pakistan's Shahbaz Ahmed.

Ramesh Patel, chief executive of the New Zealand Hockey Federation, and arguably that country's greatest player, selected his World XI, after the World Cup. For men, it was

Position	Players
Goalkeeper	Ramon Jufresa (Spain)
Backs	Jan Peter Tewes (Germany) Michael York (Australia)
Halves	Daniel Sproule (Australia) Seok Kyo Shin (Korea) Wassen Ahmed (Pakistan)
Forwards	Seong Tae Song (Korea) Christian Blunck (Germany) Juan Escarre (Spain) Shahbaz Ahmed (Pakistan) Oliver Domke (Germany)

For women, his selection was:

Position	Players
Goalkeeper	Clover Maitland (Australia)
Backs	Kate Starre (Australia) Jenny Duck (New Zealand)
Halves	Juliet Haslem (Australia) Tracy Fuchs (United States) Junxia Huang (China)
Forwards	Nicole Mott (Australia) Rachelle Hawkes (Australia) Karina Masotta (Argentina) Alyson Annan (Australia) Vanina Oneto (Argentina)

Needless to say, not a single Indian is there in any of the awards. As small consolation, India's Surja Lata Devi and Sanggai Ibemhal Chanu, both 17-year-olds, were presented with special awards for being the youngest players of the tournament.

nternational hockey supremacy returned to Europe again, with Netherlands, Spain and Germany winning the three medals at stake in the 1998 World Cup. These European teams, along with Australia, finished in the top 4 both in the Atlanta Olympics and in the Utrecht World Cup.

It was Holland's third success in the World Cup, having previously won the trophy in 1973 at home in Amstelveen and in 1990 at Lahore. Germany got back into the medal count in the World Cup for the first time since 1986. Australia failed to win a World Cup medal for the first time since 1975.

The challenge from Asia evaporated with holders Pakistan finishing 5th, South Korea 7th, India 9th and Malaysia 11th. Asian powerhouse Pakistan has remained 5th in the world rankings for the last 2 years. Their standings in recent major tournaments are as follows:

Year	Position	Event
1996	Fifth	Olympics, Atlanta
1997	Fifth	Champions Trophy, Adelaide
1997	Fifth	Junior World Cup, Milton Keynes
1998	Fifth	World Cup, Utrecht

3 separate enquiries have been ordered into Pakistan's hockey debacle - by the Ministry of Sports, National Assembly Standing Committee on Sports and the Senate Standing Committee on Sports. Pakistan has currently no regional or international title in their belt. At the Asian level, South Korea is the reigning champion of both the Asian Games and the Asia Cup.

he Australian Olympic Committee has a Medal Incentive Scheme whereby, for performances achieved during 1998, Australian athletes are eligible to receive Australian $40,000 for a gold medal, $24,000 for a silver medal, $12,000 for a bronze and $10,000 for a fourth placing.

The World Champions Australian women's hockey team will get grants totalling Australian $640,000 (US$ 377,600) under the incentive scheme. It was just reward for the Hockeyroos, who have won every major international tournament since 1994 - 2 World Cups (1994, 1998), 1 Olympics (1996) and 4 Champions Trophies (1994 - 1997). They are presently Australia's most successful sports team. Throughout that time, Ric Charlesworth has been coach and Rachelle Hawkes captain.

Under the same scheme, the fourth-placed Australian men's hockey team is eligible for a total of Australian $160,000 in grants.

hahbaz Ahmed Sr. of Pakistan extended his contract for the Eindhoven club Oranje Zwart by two years. Shahbaz will be playing for the Dutch club between September 1 - December 18, 1998, and from January 26 - May 16, 1999. His brother-in-law Tahir Zaman will also be playing during that same period for another Dutch club. Both the players are said to be getting contract fees close to $40,000 each, plus other facilities. Both Shahbaz and Tahir will not be playing for Pakistan in 3 important tournaments in 1998 - Champions Trophy, Commonwealth Games and the Asian Games, due to their committments in the Dutch Hockey League.

The General Manager of the Oranje Zwart club, M.H. van den Hevvel, had himself sent a fax to Shahbaz's employers PIA, asking them to release him for the contract period. Hevvel stated in the fax that it is an honour for the Dutch club to have Shahbaz playing for them from September 1, and that Shahbaz was an excellent ambassador for his country and for the sport.

Incidentally, Shahbaz will be playing with other top international stars who also represent the Dutch club. Australians Jay Stacy and Paul Lewis have been signed for one year contracts, while South African Grant Fulton has signed for an indefinite period.

n the strange world of Indian sports, 1 Cricketer = 40 Hockey Players, at least going by match fees. Indian cricketers are paid close to Rs. 100,000 per one-day international. A hockey players gets an average of Rs. 2,500 per match. The equation is slightly diffferent if we take daily allowance into account. Cricketers get a Rs. 1,800 daily allowance. Hockey players get between Rs. 50 to Rs. 100 per day.

No Indian hockey player has got any endorsement deals with any company in India. In contrast, Sachin Tendulkar endorses VISA cards, Adidas sports gear, MRF tires. Ajay Jadeja, who is not even on the current test team, endorses Kingfisher beer (with Saurav Ganguly), Kellogs (with Anil Kumble), Head and Shoulders shampoo and Pepsi. Coca Cola has signed on Saurav Ganguly and Srinath.

A game like soccer, where India is ranked around 110, has a national league, title sponors, and highlights on satellite television. Hockey, where India is among the top 10, has nothing.

Sponsors have been burnt by the corrupt ways of the IHF officials. The money made by the IHF the past two years is as follows: Rs. 1.24 crore - Kuber Group, Rs. 74 lakhs - Doordarshan, Rs. 28 lakhs - Punjab and Sindh Bank, Rs. 21 lakhs - Pepsi/API, Rs. 2.5 lakhs - Iodex.

Out of all these, the players got a measly sum of Rs. 25,000 each for playing in the Indo-Pak series. This was obtained after the players insisted on some money for the series (the Pakistani team got Rs. 50,000 each from their Federation). A. B. Subbaiah was axed from the team by the management because he was instrumental in demanding payment for the team members.

ndian team coach V. Bhaskaran submitted an interim report to the officers of the Department of Youth Affairs and Sports. The manager of the team, Ajitpal Singh, is expected to submit his report shortly.

The ills of Indian hockey was analysed at length during the Presidents' Advisory Committee meeting at Bangalore. While accepting the blame, Mr. K. P. S. Gill, president of the Indian Hockey Federation (IHF), attributed the debacle of the Indian teams to the selection process (under their control), and to the lack of physical and psychological conditioning of the team.

The IHF announced sweeping changes in the team selection procedure and unveiled an action plan to revive hockey to help the country stage a comeback in the Commonwealth and Asian Games later this year.

The method of selecting the team based on a selection trials, normally of one or two days duration after the camp was over, was being done away with. Mr. Gill said that the "need was of tournament play over a period of time, say a week or more, wherein players could be assessed.'' 

Gill also announced sweeping changes in the composition of selection committees - senior, junior, sub-junior - all of which would be headed by himself. The following is the list of the various selection committees:

Selection Committee (Senior): Col. Haripal Kaushik (Punjab), Ashok Kumar (Indian Airlines), Cedric D'Souza (Air India), Balkar Singh (Railways). 2 officials with non-hockey experience, K. P. S. Gill and K. Jyothikumaran, have placed themselves in the committee too.

Selection Committee (Junior): Mervyn Fernandes (Indian Airlines), S. S. Saini (Punjab), R. P. S. Singh (UP), V. Prabhakaran (TN), Gurdishpal Singh (Chandigarh). This has 3 officials with non-hockey playing experience - K. P. S. Gill, K. Jyothikumaran and D. S. Murthy.

Selection Committee (Sub-Junior): Jhaman Lal Sharma, Tikken Singh (Indian Airlines), K. Krishnamurthy (Karnataka), P. A. Jabbarathnam (TN), Charanjit Singh Raheja (Delhi).

As the great Shahbaz Ahmed put it, in a recent interview with Khaleej Times, "If I was the boss I would do away with the selection committee. If at all, such a committee should comprise the manager, captain and coach - the trio who know their players better than those people whose only interest in the game is to accommodate their recommended players."

ormer India captain and full-back Gurdishpal Singh has been newly appointed as a Junior Hockey Selector. He currently works as Superintendent in Customs and Central Excise at Chandigarh. His profile is as follows:

Junior Hockey Background:

Gurdish Pal represented Combined Universities in the National Hockey Championships from 1975 to 1979 . He was selected for Punjab University in 1972 and was captain of his victorious varsity team in the All-India Inter-University Hockey Championship in 1975. He was also a member of the Indian University team which toured Europe in 1975.

Senior Hockey Background:

Gurdish Pal captained India in 1977 against Pakistan in a Test series. He was selected for the 1978 World Cup in Buenos Aires, and was a standby for the 1984 Olympic Games. He played for Delhi from 1981 to 1987. He is currently in charge of the All India Customs and Central Excise hockey team, which is an Associate Member of the Indian Hockey Federation.

He advocates organisation of more tournaments on the lines of the Nehru Hockey Tournament in Delhi where teams from all corners of the country participate. He further believes that players must be given incentives in cash or kind to keep their interests alive in this fascinating game which, unfortunately, is slowly on the decline.

ports officials in India come from the same breed as politicians, and are equally despised by all honest people. A profile of hockey officials, who have never played international hockey, would begin and end with the amount of money they have milked from our national game.

Keeping the above truth in mind, presented below is a list of committees, whose members have been selected as a reward for their loyalty to Gill.

Administration Committee: M. S. Balakrishnan, K. Jyothikumaran, J. N. Tyagi, Col. Siddiqui, G. Sathyanarayana, S. P. Das.

Constitution Revision Committee: Vijay Gupte (Bhopal), Col. Siddiqui, T. Jesudanam, M. S. Balakrishnan.

Presidential Advisory Committee: D. S. Murthy, Aslam Khan (UP), H. J. Dora, M. S. Balakrishnan, K. Jyothikumaran, J.N. Tyagi, Bajpai (Bengal), Unni (MP), S. Nagarwala , Balkar Singh (Railways), K. Krishnamurthy (Karnataka).

ommonwealth Games hockey, for both men and women, will be held at the hockey stadium in Pantai. The men's challenge will be led by Australia, Pakistan and England, who finished 4th, 5th and 6th in the Utrecht World Cup, and who have qualified for the elite Champions Trophy in 1998 and 1999.

The women's team is a one-horse race, with Australia being overwhelming favourites. Token opposition could come from England and South Africa. Zimbabwe and Singapore have pulled out of the women's tournament. Wales and Trinidad and Tobago are their replacements.

The pool groupings for the men's and women's teams are as follows:

Men	Pool A	Pool B
	Australia New Zealand India South Africa Wales Trinidad and Tobago	Pakistan England Canada Malaysia Bangladesh Kenya
Women	Pool A	Pool B
	Australia Scotland India Malaysia Jamaica Trinidad and Tobago	England New Zealand Canada South Africa Wales Sri Lanka

ndian hockey probables for the Commonwealth Games at Kuala Lumpur will be selected at the Golden Jubilee Independence Hockey Tournament to be held in Chennai from July 11-18. The tournament would be played serially - not simultaneosuly - on a league-cum-knockout basis, and all the selectors would watch the matches over eight days. The teams would comprise 16 teams:

National Championships Quarterfinalists - 8

• Tamil Nadu, Bombay, Indian Airlines, Karnataka, Services, Gujarat, Bihar

Associate Members - 7

• Air India, Punjab and Sindh Bank (PSB), All India Customs and Central Excise, Steel Authority of India Ltd. (SAIL), Border Security Force (BSF), Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and Food Corporation of India (FCI)

Miscellaneous - 2

• Punjab (National Games Winners), IHF team

After the July 11-18 tournament at Chennai, the selected team for the Commonwealth Games would undergo a 21-day physical conditioning camp at the Army Physical Training Institute, Pune and a 10-day 'psychological camp' at Chennai.

(May - Jun 1998)

he latest edition of Inside Hockey Magazine was a World Cup Special issue, which gave the rundown of the 12 men's teams, the 12 women's teams, and a frank analysis of India's chances. The complete schedule of the matches was given, as well as the television schedule on ESPN-Star Sports.

The 1998 Indo-Pak series was covered fully, and in the nostalgia section, Pakistan great Hanif Khan talked of the 1982 World Cup final, where the sports-loving crowd of Mumbai cheered Pakistan in their victory over Germany.

An article by K. N. Mohlajee on India's only World Cup triumph brought back wonderfully pleasant memories. Mohlajee covered the 1975 World Cup for the Statesman, Calcutta and retired as its sports editor.

Issue 3 is attractively packaged, with lots of action photographs of Indian hockey stars. The girlie photo on the last page, and its accompanying juvenile writeup, has been done away with, thankfully.

Hockey Kings Arrive Today
They will be accompanied by their many wives
There are two lions in the team

he Los Angeles sport writer, way back in 1932, was wrong about the wives (whether one or many), though he was right about the lions. There were indeed two - Roop Singh and Gurmeet Singh.

This anecdote, and more, was featured in an article by sports editor Rohit Brijnath in the May 25, 1998 issue of India Today. Entitled "Hockey - On the Sidelines", it marked a welcome change from his usual slew of articles on cricket. Some excerpts:

How time flies, how ornaments turn to dust. Back in 1932, when the Indian team arrived in Los Angeles for the Olympic Games, even their newspapers knew of India's hockey stars. Today as India prepares for the World Cup, the Kingdom is gone. Everywhere the pungent smell of decay oozes from Indian hockey ....

As practice is over at NIS, Patiala, the players return to rooms where coolers wheeze and swarms of mosquitos fly in formation. No room has a carpet, let alone a television set. One player smiles: "It is better than the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium, where the bedsheets are yellow, and only officials stay in air-conditioned rooms."

In 1994, K. P. S. Gill promised an IHF stadium with hot and cold running water, and independent rooms with cable television." It is 1998 now. The players still wait.....

Anil Aldrin played for India in the Asian Games, World Cup and the Olympics. He works as a purser in Air India. As he said, "At a recent course I attended, few people, if any, knew me. Yet when a Ranji Trophy cricketer, Sameer Dighe arrived, everyone made a beeline for him." Anil Alexander Aldrin, who as a young boy dreamed of an India shirt, has now grown up, more mature and more wise. "I don't think I will let my son play hockey for India."

erman coach Paul Lissek will take over coaching duties for Malaysia from Volter Knapp for the Commonwealth Games and beyond. Malaysia finished 11th in the 1998 World Cup. This will be third foreign coach in a row for Malaysia, who earlier had Terry Walsh of Australia as their coach.

The Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) might turn again to Dutch coach Hans Jorritsma to help them lift the sagging fortunes of the senior team. PHF President Akhtar Rasool and Secretary Mudassar Asghar held impromptu discussions in this connection during the World Cup in Utrecht. Hans Jorritsma, the former Dutch hockey international, was coach of the Pakistan team in 1993 and 94, the year Pakistan won the Champions Trophy and World Cup.

In a move with far-reaching implications, the Indian Hockey Federation has extended an invitation to the former Australian stalwart coach Richard Aggiss to attend the Commonwealth Games selection tournament to be held in Chennai in July. The IHF is planning to discuss the availability of Aggiss for coaching the national team till the 2000 Olympics in Sydney. A rough estimate of the salary to be paid is around $60,000 to $70,000 a year. Richard Aggiss helped Australia win the World Cup in 1986.

After messing up the first two times, the IHF is planning to organise a few clinics in different parts of the country with Floris Bovelander. The sporting Bovelander has still agreed to make it to India, provided the IHF organises the schedule in an orderly way.

ndia Field Hockey received this visitor from the land of samba and soccer. Julio Neves is the coordinator of the Brazilian Hockey Association (ABH). He writes:

Hi, I'm a hockey player and ABH's coordinator here in Brazil. I'd like to establish contact with various clubs and associations of field hockey to try, in the future, to organize or to play in international invitational tournaments.

Hockey in Brazil is still at a beginning stage, and we could use some assistance, and of course, relations with Indian teams would be very nice. Please contact me. Thank you.

enalty corner executioners, those crack specialists who came off the bench to slam-in or scoop penalty corners, and then go back to the bench, are now a part of field hockey history. The introduction of rolling substitution after the 1992 Barcelona Olympics brought into vogue specialists whose appearances during matches were restricted to half a minute for every penalty corner. After six years of experimentation, the FIH has decided to do away with such penalty corner specialists, in the interests of free-flowing action to win more sponsors and TV viewers.

In the future, teams wanting to employ crack penalty corner executioners will have to field them in the playing eleven. "That's how it should be," said Ric Charlesworth, coach of the Australian women's team. "We've always believed in making one of the players on the pitch take the penalty corner. The new rule will abolish stoppages caused by such change overs."

The new rule will now force several star players such as crack Dutch shooter Bram Lomans, England's Calum Giles and Sohail Abbas of Pakistan to reorient the course of their hockey careers. They'll have to find places on the playing teams to entertain hopes of further success in the sporting arena.

Significantly, in the World Cup at Utrecht, the number of field goals outnumbered those from penalty corners. This was also the first big tournament played under the no off-side rule. An average of five goals were scored in every game.

AE have been admitted back into the International Hockey Federation (FIH). With all previous dues paid for membership formalities, the UAE can now participate in the Asian Games and all other international events endorsed by the FIH. All players who have been residing in the UAE for than 10 years are eligible to represent the UAE.

The office-bearers of the UAE Hockey Committee (UAEHC) are:

Chairman - Ismail Ali Al Banna
Secretary - Major Saeed Salem Al Suwaidi
Assistant Secretary - Reza Abidi
Committee Members - Mohammed Manji, Afsar Ali Khan and Haider Parad

The UAEHC chairman is also the vice-president of the Arab Hockey Federation (AHF). Pakistan is helping the UAEHC in a big way. Internationals Shahbaz Ahmed and Kamran Ashraf turned out for Emirates Invitational XI, in their exhibtion match against Planners Club. The former won 6-3, in a match that was watched by the Pakistan Consul-General Mohammed Younis Khan.

In February 1999, the UAEHC is planning a tournament involving Pakistan, India, South Korea and Malaysia. It will be held at the Central Military Command artificial turf complex near the old defence roundabout.

hirteen youths from Punjab and Haryana, who tried to obtain visas by posing as members of a hockey team in the US embassy, walked into a trap set by the Delhi Police. They were charged with cheating and forgery, and a metropolitan magistrate remanded them to judicial custody for 14 days.

The youths had reportedly told US embassy officials that they were members of a Karnal-based club 'Metro Young', and they wanted visas because they had been invited to participate in the 'Modesto Hockey Tournament' at California, starting July 3.

They also furnished fake documents and certificates some of them bearing forged signatures of IHF president K. P. S. Gill to support their claim that they had played several hockey tournaments at the state and inter-state levels. The youths were however exposed when they were asked several technical aspects of hockey like dimensions of the pitch, length of a stick, and positions. It was found that none of them had ever played hockey and that their only objective was to go to the US.

The misguided youth had paid Rs 20,000 each as advance to a sleazy travel agent in Karnal, who had promised to get them visas for Rs. 4 lakhs each. The agent, one Mukesh Sharma, had managed to enter the US in a similar way two years back before he returned to India this year. Delhi Police is coordinating with Haryana Police to track down this travel agent, before more youngsters are duped.

ockey in Pune, under the stewardship of the Maharashtra Hockey Association, is a mess. A case in point is the inaugural Late Laxmanrao Baba Jadhav hockey tournament. The scheduled final of the tournament was put off, for the most ridiculous of reasons. "It was the non-availability of the chief guest which forced the postponement,'' said Benny Boodle, secretary of the MHA. Since when is the chief guest (usually somebody who has nothing to do with hockey) more important than the game itself?