ersatile forward Dhanraj Pillai has been awarded the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award for 1999. Veterans Balbir Singh Kullar, V. J. Phillips and Haripal Kaushik have been honoured with the Lifetime Achievement awards. Indian hockey captain Ramandeep Singh has been honoured with the Arjuna Puraskar.

Dhanraj Pillai is the first hockey player to get the prestigious Khel Ratna award. The award comes with a cash prize of Rs. 3 lakhs. 

Dhanraj currently plays for the Stuttgart Kickers in Division I of the German hockey league. Stuttgart Kickers, with two wins and two draws after four games, is in the quarterfinals of the Germany hockey league, which will resume in the first week of October after the Sydney Olympics.

Probably due to the various scandals facing Indian cricket, for the first time since the inception of the prestigious Arjuna awards, no cricketer figured in the list of awardees.

Sports Minister Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa told a crowded press conference that neither the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), nor any state cricket association had recommended any cricketer's name for the award. "We cannot force the associations to give names of the players for awards," he said.

The awards will be presented by the President of India at a function to be held at Rashtrapati Bhavan on August 29. That day is designated as the National Sports Day in India, in honour of hockey wizard Dhyan Chand who was born on August 29, 1905.

ith just 3 months left for the Sydney Olympics, Pakistan hockey is left without a President, Secretary, National Coach and Assistant Coach.

The drama began on June 12. In a council meeting in Peshawar, Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) President Arif Ali Khan Abbasi suspended Brig. (Retd.) Manzoor Hussain Atif as secretary, dissolved all sub-committees, and cancelled Pakistan's 15-day European tour of Belgium, Spain and Poland.

Brig. Atif asserted that he was still the secretary of the PHF. He claimed that the PHF Council Meeting did not have quorum, and that he had the support of a majority of the council members (12 out of the 21). He went on to 'quit' as secretary of the PHF, after making it known to all that he was not 'fired' as secretary.

It was time for the military government to step in. On June 17, the Federal Minister for Sports and Culture, Derek Cyprian, who is also the President of the Pakistan Sports Board, issued orders for the removal of Abbasi from his post of President of the PHF. The order also barred Abbasi from holding any office in the country's sports set-up in the future.

Sources have said that ex-President Abbasi could be placed on the Exit Control List, whereby he will not be allowed to leave the country. If that does happen, he would join ex-PHF President Akhtar Rasool, who is also on the Exit Control List of the Government of Pakistan. Strangely, Abbasi was yet to receive official notification of his dismissal, even 10 days after the order was issued.

At this stage, national coach Hanif Khan announced his resignation saying, "There is so much controversy going on and the players are mentally upset. Under these circumstances it is not possible for me to continue with the job." Since there was nobody in the PHF he could send his resignation to, he first announced it to the press. 

The PHF Council took a serious view of Hanif Khan's resignation. Acting PHF Secretary Zahir Shah said, "action will be taken against Hanif Khan. When the nation needed him, he resigned. It's a joke with the nation which can't be tolerated."

Assistant coach Shahid Ali Khan soon followed with his own resignation, stating that he was quitting in protest over the dismissal of PHF president Arif Abbasi. Shahid lamented that Abbasi's removal was the worst thing that could have happened to Pakistan hockey, specially at a time when the team was preparing for the Olympics

Shahbaz Ahmed, the 34-year-old veteran of three Olympics, then threw his hat into the ring by announcing his availability to play for Pakistan in the Sydney Olympics. "I am fully fit and in good form and if the country needs me, I am available to play in the Olympic Games," he said.

The first casualty of this ongoing war within the PHF was the Olympic training camp which had to be postponed. The camp will commence at the Pakistan Steel Township astroturf at Karachi. Though Islahuddin preferred the Hockey Club of Pakistan venue in Karachi, the turf has been worn out, and the floodlights are not operational because electricity to the club has been disconnected for non-payment of bills.

Act II of the ongoing drama will be played out on July 5 at Rawalpindi. The PHF Council Meeting is likely to elect Chief of General Staff, Lt. General Aziz Khan, as the President of the PHF. 

Photo Courtesy : The Hindu

romising mid-fielder Prabodh Trikey from the Centre of Excellence (COE) of Bangalore, led the 18-member Indian team in the inaugural Sub-Junior (u-16) Asia Cup held at Singapore from June 16 to 25.

Eventually, only 8 countries participated in the tournament, following the withdrawal of Pakistan, South Korea and Taiwan. The results of India's matches were as follows:

Stage	Date	Result	Scorers
League	June 17	India beat Oman 8-0	Amarjeet Singh (2) Chinnappa (2) Ravinder Kumar (2) Imtiyaz Ahmed Somesh Kantha
	June 19	India beat Bangladesh 1-0	Imtiyaz Ahmed
	June 21	India beat Japan 12-0	Prabodh Tirkey (5) Chinnappa (3) Ravinder Kumar Tushar Khardekar Imtiyaz Ahmed Saravana Kumar
Semi-Final	June 24	India beat Singapore 9-0	Prabodh Tirkey (4) Tushar Khardekar (2) Somesh Kanta Chinnappa Navdeep Singh
FINAL	June 25	India beat Bangladesh 5-2	Somesh Kanta (2) Imtiyaz Ahmad Tomba Singh Chinnappa

Defender Amarjeet Singh, a product of the Surjit Singh Hockey Academy (Jalandhar), was declared the Player of the Tournament. Skipper Prabodh Tirkey, now with the Centre of Excellence (Bangalore), received the Top Goal Scorer award. India also received the Fair Play Trophy. Six Indians made it to the All-Star team at the end of the tournament. India remained unbeaten throughout the tournament, and scored 35 goals for and only 2 goals against. Till the final, no team had scored against India.

Coach A. K. Bansal said that though the team had only a month to prepare for the tournament, their tactics and strategy paid off. He was encouraged by the penalty corner conversions. "We converted 40 to 50 per cent of the penalty corners we earned. That's a good sign. We adopted three variations and scored off all the three," said Bansal. 13 of India's 35 goals came of penalty corners.

The final standings : 1. India 2. Bangladesh 3. Malaysia 4. Singapore 5. Oman 6. Japan 7. Sri Lanka 8. Thailand

In a felicitation function organised by the IHF, all the players were given cheques for Rs. 10,000. The team was also presented to Sports Minister Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa in a get-together at the National Stadium. 

The victorious Indian  team was as follows:

Goalkeeper : Suraj Kanta (Manipur), Surinder Singh Namdhari (Punjab)

Backs : Amarjeet Singh (Punjab), S. Tomba Singh (Manipur), Srikant (Hyderabad)

Mid-fielders : Harpreet Singh (Karnataka), Prabodh Trikey (Bangalore), Jagat Jyothi, Rajnikant (both Tamil Nadu), H. Tigga (Services)

Forwards : M. D. Chinnappa (Karnataka), Ravinder Kumar, Navdeep Singh (both Punjab), Somesh Kanta, Jasobanda Singh (both Manipur), Imtiaz Ahmed, Tushar Khandekar (both Uttar Pradesh), Sarvanan Kumar (Tamil Nadu)

Officials : Chief Coach - A. K. Bansal (Sports Authority of India), Assistant Coaches - Balwinder Singh (Railways) and Narenderpal Singh (State Bank of India, Hyderabad)

 

he 22nd men's and the 8th women's Rabobank Champions Trophy tournaments were held in Amstelveen, Holland, from May 26 to June 4, 2000. Netherlands won both the men's and women's titles, repeating the double achieved by Australia in last year's Champions Trophy. 

The Dutch men's team beat Germany 2-1 in the final, through the 1999 international player of the year Stephan Veen's golden goal. The Dutch thus achieved the Grand Slam of hockey - by holding the Olympic, World Cup and Champions Trophy titles at the same time. It was the fifth Dutch victory in the Champions Trophy tournament, and their third in five years.

The attendance figures were 9,000 for the men's final and 5,000 for the women's final. The average attendance was 77% (of the 9000-seat stadium) for the duration of the tournament.

 The Dutch crowd reaction at the men's victory was magnificent, singing and dancing in unison. The orange-clad Dutch fans waved their flags and sang their national anthem with spine-tingling passion before and after the match.

The Dutch men's team won all 6 matches they played in the Champions Trophy. In contrast, the bottom-ranked team, Great Britain, did not win a single match in the tournament. Teun de Nooijer of Holland was voted Player of the Tournament. The Dutch team won £800 per player for winning the title. 

The Dutch women's team beat Germany 3-2 to take the women's title. The Germans battled back from 2-0 down, but were sunk by a controversial twice-taken penalty stroke, 87 seconds before the final whistle. The rules do not allow for a retake of a stroke, but award the goal.

The final placings (men) were as follows : 1. Netherlands 2. Germany 3. Korea 4. Spain 5. Australia 6. Britain.

The final placings (women) were as follows : 1. Netherlands 2. Germany 3. Australia 4. Argentina 5. South Africa 6. New Zealand.

	Men's Champions Trophy
	Player of the Tournament	Teun de Nooijer (NED)
	Top Scorer	Oliver Domke (GER) Eduard Tubau (ESP)
	Fair Play Trophy	Spain
	Most Promising Player	Eduard Tubau (ESP)
	Women's Champions Trophy
	Player of the Tournament	Luciana Aymar (ARG)
	Top Scorer	Nadine Ernsting (GER)
	Fair Play Trophy	Australia
	Most Promising Player	Minke Smabers (NED)

 

Jay Stacy	Natascha Keller

ay Stacy of Australia and Natascha Keller of Germany won the 1999 FIH Player of the Year Awards. The awards were presented during the 2000 Champions Trophy held at Amstelveen in the Netherlands

Jay Stacy, 31, was the vice-captain of the Australian team that won the 1999 Champions Trophy in Brisbane. He is one of the hardest hitting penalty corner strikers in the world. He is Australia's most capped player, having played recently in his 300th international for his country.

The 1999 accomplishments of 22 year old Keller include being selected as the Player of the Tournament in the Champions Trophy in Brisbane, as well as being selected for the FIH World XI team. She also took her country to the final of the 1999 European Championships.

Natascha comes from a family with an exceptional Olympic tradition, with the Keller dynasty of Berlin having won 5 Olympic medals (2 Gold, 3 Silver) for Germany over the last 64 years.

Keller's grandfather Ervin Keller won a silver medal at the 1936 Berlin Olympics; her father Carsten Keller won the gold at the 1972 Munich Olympics and her brother Andreas won silver in Los Angeles in 1984 and Seoul in 1988 before claiming the gold in Barcelona in 1992.

The FIH Player of the Year nominations were received from various journalists and national hockey federations. A selection panel comprising umpires, coaches, journalists and players voted on the nominations. Voting was based on various criteria such as leadership qualities, contribution to development, technique and skill, influence on team performance and personality.

t is now official. There will be no representation from the African continent in the Sydney Olympics men's hockey competition. The National Olympic Committee of South Africa (NOCSA) confirmed its earlier ruling and barred its mens' hockey team from competing in the Sydney Olympics.

The reasons give were because the team composition is too white, which doesn't reflect the demographics of the population, and because the team is unlikely to finish in the top nine. Only 7 in the men's national squad of 30 were non-white. 

While the women's team also did not meet the racial criteria, NOCSA believed it would finish in the top eight, and is allowing the team to attend the Olympics. The women's team finished 5th in the 2000 Champions Trophy held in Amstelveen.

NOCSA had come under pressure from Sports Minister Ngconde Balfour and the International Hockey Federation (FIH), but refused to budge from its stand. The South African Hockey Association is appealing to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which is based in Lausanne, Switzerland.

As a result of NOCSA's decision, 8 South African players, with almost 900 international caps between them, have decided to retire from international hockey. These players include Craig Jackson (team captain), Greg Nicol (one of the best strikers in world hockey), Brian Myburgh (world-class goalkeeper), and Gregg Clark (the most capped South African player with 170 caps).

The Atlanta Olympics thus remains the only occasion when the South African men's team took part in Olympic hockey. They finished 10th in the 12-nation field.

The International Hockey Federation (FIH) has now invited Argentina to participate in the Sydney Olympics hockey competition. Just like in the Atlanta Olympics, India's first match in Sydney would now be against Argentina. India lost 0-1 in an upset to Argentina in its opener at Atlanta, eventually finishing with a worst-ever 8th position.

Bhaskaran Coaching the Indian Team at Bangalore

hirty two probables underwent training in a month-long pre-Olympic hockey camp held at Bangalore. The venue of the camp was the Karnataka State Hockey Association (KSHA) stadium, with the lodging facilities at the nearby Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) clubhouse.

The morning sesssions were held at the KSCA stadium, and were spent on physical conditioning - running, weight-training and work-outs. The afternoon sessions were held at the KSHA stadium, and were devoted to hockey drills. The 7-hours-a-day routine had a beneficial effect on the fitness levels of the players. There was good camaraderie between the seniors and the juniors from the Asia Cup silver medal winning team.

While Chief Coach Bhaskaran took care of the midfielders and backs, assistant coach Harender, who still plays in the Spanish league, took charge of the forwards at the camp, fine tuning their trappings and ball skills. All this while, at the far end, the five goalkeepers were defending the flick-scoop penalty corner drills from Len Ayyappa and the rest.

Meanwhile, IHF President K. P. S. Gill has ruled out the return of goalkeeper Ashish Ballal, hero of India's Bangkok Asian Games triumph in 1998, for the September Sydney Olympics. He said, "the chapter on goalkeepers in closed. We don't want the team spirit of either the players or officials to be affected."

As for Ballal, the Bangalore player has refused to talk about the controversy, and continues to work out daily to keep in shape.

At the end of the camp, the number of probables has dropped down to 25. Phase II of the Olympic camp, which starts on July 2, will comprise the following players:

Goalkeepers: Jude Menezes, Edward Aloysius, Jagadish Ponnappa, Devesh Chauhan

Defenders: Dilip Tirkey, Dinesh Nayak, Lazarus Barla, Len Ayyappa, Anurag Raghuvanshi

Midfield: S. S. Gill, Ramandeep Singh, Mohammed Riaz, Baljit Singh Saini, Thirumala Valavan, Bimal Lakra, Bipin Fernandez, Arjun Halappa

Forwards: Dhanraj Pillai, Mukesh Kumar, Jagan Senthil, Baljit Dhillon, Sameer Dad, Prabhjot Singh, Deepak Thakur, Gagan Ajit Singh

he Bombay Hockey Association (BHA) has burnt the past records of the players who played for Mumbai, for want of space.

BHA president Bakshi Dilbagh Singh himself confirmed this, saying that "the records were burnt under my supervision. What could we do? We did not have place to keep them. White ants had already eaten some of the records. Therefore, we had no option but to burn the records."

The incident came to light when former Mumbai centre-forward Amiruddin Siddiqui wrote to the BHA asking for his records and paper clippings since he wanted to use them in his book. However, when he came to know about the records being burnt, he felt let down saying, "the BHA has hurt me. They have poured water over my life's work. How can I now tell people that I played hockey for Mumbai?"

When confronted with this, the BHA president retorted, "Who is Mr Siddiqui? He has not played for India. He is not very important to us, nor are his records."

BHA treasurer B. J. Chokani said that account books were burnt, and not the record books. He alleged that the whole controversy was started by a maali, who does not know to read or write.

Former Mumbai Olympians may take the BHA to court for burning to ashes their record of playing for the city.

nil Kumble, who plays for Leicestershire in the English county cricket league, has been picked by the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) for a new advertisement campaign to promote vegetarianism.

Kumble, a vegetarian, took to the crease at Lord's cricket ground carrying a bat with "Go Veg" written on it for the advertisement. 

Kumble joins a team of celebrities like former Beatle Sir Paul McCartney, tennis great Martina Navratilova and Hollywood actors Kim Bassinger, Pamela Anderson and Woody Harrelson in promoting vegetarianism.

"Vegetarianism saves animals' lives," Kumble said. "Vegetarian food contains all the vitamins and proteins you need, and is free of all the fat, cholesterol and toxins found in meat," he added.

Due to a high-profile campaign by PETA, leading stores such as Gap and Clarks have stopped marketing Indian leather goods on grounds of cruel treatment of animals in India.