Uncategorized – Give Me Hockey

Probables List For Sultan Azlan Shah And European Tour Announced

Jimmy Bhogal — Mon, 07 Mar 2016 15:28:00 +0000

Lakra doubtful for Rio Olympics

33 players list for upcoming Sultan Azlan Cup and proposed European tour has been announced and Gurbaj Singh who has axed from the team due to disciplinary issue has once again been left out of the probable list. Interestingly, Captain Sardar Singh who has been facing allegations of sexual harassment has been included in the player list for training camp.

Defender Birendra Lakra who suffered ligament

rupture in his right knee during Hockey India League was also included in the squad despite undergoing surgery on March 3 which will keep him out of squad for Sultan Azlan Shah and proposed European tour. The ACL reconstruction surgery will keep him out of the squad for quite some time and might even miss the Rio Olympics.

The players selected for the camp will begin their training for Sultan Azlan Shah Cup on March 7 which will end on April 8 in Bangalore while the final team for the tournament will be selected on March 15^th.

The senior players will be joined by 32 junior players who will also begin their preparation for Junior World Cup to be played in December.

Following are the players who were selected the probables list for Sultan Azlan Shah Cup and European tour:

Goalkeepers: P.R. Sreejesh, Harjot Singh, Akash Chikte

Defenders: Rupinder Pal Singh, Pardeep Mor, Jasjit Singh Kular, Birender Lakra, V.R. Raghunath, Kothajit Singh, Sumit, Surender Kumar, Gurjinder Singh, Amit Gowda

Midfielders: Danish Mujtaba, Chinglensana Singh, Manpreet Singh, Sardar Singh, Satbir Singh, Dharamvir Singh, S.K. Uthappa, Devinder Walmiki, Nithin Thimmaiah

Forwards: Affan Yousuf, Talwinder Singh, Mandeep Singh, S.V. Sunil, Lalit Upadhyay, Mohd. Amir Khan, Akashdeep Singh, Ramandeep Singh, Nikkin Thimmaiah, Malak Singh, Yuvraj Walmiki.

The post Probables List For Sultan Azlan Shah And European Tour Announced first appeared on Give Me Hockey.

Hockey India League Team Preview: Jaypee Punjab Warriors

Jimmy Bhogal — Sun, 17 Jan 2016 08:34:00 +0000

Finalist of last two editions of Hockey India League, Jaypee Punjab Warriors will be hoping to strike gold this time around when they begin their campaign on January 19^th. The addition of Indian hockey captain Sardar Singh will surely boost the morale of Punjab Warriors team who have always come short in the finals of the tournament. Let us take a look how ready the team is for this year’s tournament:

COACH

Jaypee Group owned Punjab Warriors have stuck with Australian Barry Dancer who has been with the team since the first edition of the tournament in 2012. After struggling in the early first edition of the tournament, Barry Dancer has really done well with

the team playing the Australian style of physical attacking hockey. Jagbir Singh who has coached Indian in the past will be the assistant coach of the team.

TEAM

Just like the previous editions of the tournament the core of Jaypee Punjab Warriors this time around is Australian players with team management retaining Mark Knowles, Chris Ciriello and Jake Whetton among the foreign players while SV Sunil, Satbir Singh and Varun Kumar were the Indian players who were retained before the auctions. Addition of Indian captain Sardar Singh during the auctions will surely provide some good strength and creativity in the midfield to the team. Along with Sardar Singh, Jaypee Punjab Warriors also signed Gurvinder Singh Chandi who has done well with Delhi WaveRiders in the previous additions. Mark Gleghorne and Simon Orchard are also the other big name players bought by the team in the auctions.

STRENGTHS

This season everyone eyes is on the new goal scoring rule in which one field goal will count as two on the scoreboard. Jaypee Punjab Warriors have done well by adding some good strikers and midfielders in the team. Jaypee needed a leader in the midfield and in Sardar Singh and Simon Orchard, Jaypee Warriors have done great job in getting the players who are all about attack. The defense of Mark Knowles and Chris Ciriello was always well known and keeping the star duo together will surely prove to be a boon for Punjab.

WEAKNESS

While the team has done well with the getting good outfield players they have come short in the goalkeeping department. In the earlier editions of the tournament, Punjab had the services of Jaap Stockmann and Bharat Chetri but this time around Punjab could only manage the service of Jugraj Singh (no experience for India- junior or seniors) and Tristan Clemons who has just featured 18 times for Australian team, last coming in 2013. The goalkeeping might turn out to be Achilles heel for Jaypee Punjab Warriors which the opponents would surely want to exploit.

PREDICTION

Jaypee Warriors have always been strong on paper but they have never been able to go the distance despite dazzling in the earlier rounds of the tournaments. This team is stronger than the teams before and if the team’s goalkeepers are able to decent jobs between the pipes, the team will surely be able to reach the finals once again.

KEY PLAYERS

Jaypee Punjab Warriors have been blessed with some good players but the key for them will be the midfield duo of Sardar Singh and Simon Orchard. Both Sardar and Simon are known for their intelligent hockey. With weak goalkeeping, the midfield will have to keep the ball away from its defenders so the performance of Sardar Singh and Simon Orchard will be very important for Punjab Warriors.

GROUND

Jaypee Punjab Warriors have shifted their home ground from International Hockey Stadium in Mohali to Sports Complex in Sector 42 of Chandigarh.

Jaypee Punjab Warriors will play their opening match against Ranchi Rays on January 19.

The post Hockey India League Team Preview: Jaypee Punjab Warriors first appeared on Give Me Hockey.

Indian Hockey In Year 2015

Jimmy Bhogal — Mon, 28 Dec 2015 16:24:00 +0000

What a year it has been for Indian hockey, full of excitement on the field with both men and women team touching new heights while controversies galore off it. The success on the field making Indian hockey fans happy but they were also saddened by the loss of legends of the game. Let us take a trip down the memory lane and check out how the year 2015 has been for Indian hockey:

Loss of Legend

Hockey Legent Jaswant Rajput at the age of 86

The year started with death of double Olympics Gold medal winner Jaswant Singh Rajput. 86 year old Jaswant Signh Rajput won gold medals for India in 1948 and 1952 Olympics and was part of fearsome foursome of Bengal Hockey formed with Leslie Claudius, Keshav Dutt and Meldric Deluz. Originally hailing from Delhi, Jaswant Singh made Bengal his home after 1948 Olympics on advice of his good friend and teammate Leslie Claudius. Jaswant Singh Rajput was suffering from age related illness from a month when he passed away. He passed away on Jan 28th 2015. Olympian Gurbax Singh paid a glowing tribute to Jaswant Singh saying’ “He was a part of galaxy of stars that made Indian hockey proud”

Vandana Kataria Show

Vandana Kataria ran riot in HWL Round2

No one at the start of the year thought Indian women would achieve anything in the year 2015 but coach Mathias Ahrens and his group of girls had different plans in their mind. The team went to win Hockey World League Round 2 with Vandana Kataria destroying opposition after opposition in the tournament. Though she failed to score in the finals of the tournament but he was the top goal scorer of the tournament with 11 goals. Indian women team’s exploits helped Indian women team win Hockey World League Round 2 which led to big… something really big.

Mission Impossible?? Not Anymore

As said above no one ever thought that Indian women hockey team would ever achieve anything but the achieved the impossible when they qualified for the Olympics for the first time in 35 years. Midfielder Rani Rampal was the star of the show as she scored the decisive goal in the 5-6th place match which helped India finish 5th in Hockey World League and hence qualify for the Rio Olympics. The news of Indian women team qualifying for Olympics went so viral that it became of the trending topics on social media sites like Twitter and Facebook.

Shashi Bala and her son agrim died an in accident

Another Shocking Demise

If the passing away of Jaswant Singh Rajput was not enough, the news of death of former Indian women captain Shashi Bala once again shocked the Indian hockey fans. She was travelling with her 14 year old son Agrim when her car collided with an oncoming vehicle. Shashi Bala made her debut in 1987 and was part of Indian team that played in 1998 Women World Cup. After her playing career ended, she became coach of Indian Railway Hockey Team and was working a selector of Hockey Punjab when she passed away.

Revolving Door of Coaches

Coach Paul Van Ass was sacked

With Indian hockey it’s next to impossible for a coach to complete his tenure and same was the case with Paul Van Ass who has sacked by Hockey India after just five months in his new job. A well known coach across the hockey circles, Coach Van Ass had a tiff with Hockey India president Narinder Batra after Batra entered the field and started bashing the players for poor performance. Batra who is not known for his mellow ways did not think twice before sacking him. The Paul Van Ass saga went on for nearly a month before Roelant Oltmans was handed his job.

The Ban

The year 2015 was also famous in India for various types of ban, with whole country banning something or the other, Hockey India could not stay behind as they banned midfielder Gurbaj Singh for creating ‘groupism and disharmony’ in the team, a charge which Gurbaj, coach and other players rubbished. Gurbaj had to go to High Court to get his ban overturned but that did not ease his woes. Gurbaj Singh is now out of Indian team waiting for a chance to prove himself once again.

Young Guns Rise

Harjeet led from front in Junior Asia Cup

With the senior players making some good progress on the field, India’s young guns did not stay behind as they finished second in Sultan of Johor Cup. Captain Harjeet Singh led from the front winning Player of the Tournament award as the team scored 17 goals in the tournament were only beaten by Great Britain. The great form of India’s young guns continued as they won Junior Asia Cup with an unbeaten record in which penalty corner expert Harmanpreet Singh scoring 14 goals in the tournament which included two hat-tricks.

Alia catches hockey bug

Movie Mania

Hockey became eye candy of Indian film industry as the film makers planning 4 movies on field hockey with biographies coming on Prithipal Singh, Sandeep Singh and Dhyan Chand. The success of Chak De India has caught the eye of Bollywood and with more movies in pipeline. With Bollywood showing its love to hockey, hockey fans of India are surely going to have a great time.

Jinx broken

Sreejesh was star of HWL Finals

India’s record in the FIH tournaments before FIH Hockey World League Finals was a sorry one as Indian team had failed to win any medal in tournaments featuring top teams of world hockey but that changed as Indian team led by Sardar Singh broke the 33 year old jinx and won a bronze medal in HWL Finals after beating mighty Netherlands 3-2 in penalty shoot out. The Indian hockey fans were on cloud 9 after the wins and the celebrations lasting 2-3 days for the fans who do not have a lot to cheer about. Some of the fans even went ahead and called the win a perfect script for the sequel of Indian movie Chak De India!

The year turned out be a roller coaster ride for Indian hockey with new heights achieved on field while the Indian hockey management taking Indian hockey to too lows.

What was your biggest moment of Indian hockey in the year 2015? Let us know in the comments section below:

The post Indian Hockey In Year 2015 first appeared on Give Me Hockey.

Format Change To Make Hockey Exciting In Rio Olympics

Jimmy Bhogal — Sat, 26 Dec 2015 07:50:00 +0000

Quarter Finals Introduced To Make Hockey Exciting

After nearly being culled for 2020 Olympics, FIH had a huge task at their hand to make hockey more exciting and profitable To save the game, FIH made some considerable changes in the rules of hockey, like making the games for four quarters of fifteen minutes each instead of two halves of thirty five minutes and the time stoppage before the penalty corners but the change of format in Olympics is probably the most exciting which will help more teams challenge for the medal..

In the previous editions of the tournament, teams would be divided in to two pools and top two teams from each pool that would then compete for the medal.

In the new format of the game, four teams will now play an extra round knockout round (quarter finals) and get an extra opportunity to challenge for the medal. Instead of two teams qualifying for the knockouts, this time around there are going to be to four teams who will play in the knockouts. Unlike the big four- Australia, Germany, Netherlands, Great Britain, this time other teams like India and Argentina will also have an opportunity to qualify for the medal round.

Apart from introducing the quarter final stage, FIH has also decided to do away with the classification matches from the tournament. So, unlike previous editions, there will be no classification matches this time around.

With hockey’s popularity taking a hit among IOC members, FIH has taken some good steps to once again make hockey popular among the people but the introduction of quarter final stage in the Olympics will surely increase the excitement among the fans of the game.

How do you feel about the change in the format of the game for the Rio Olympics? Let us know in the comments section below:

The post Format Change To Make Hockey Exciting In Rio Olympics first appeared on Give Me Hockey.

Fans Rally Behind Gurbaj As Signature Campaign Begins

Jimmy Bhogal — Fri, 25 Dec 2015 17:56:00 +0000

Indian hockey fans have finally stood against injustice

Punjab and Haryana Court in its judgement over Gurbaj Singh said someone from the system (Hockey India) is out to get Gurbaj Singh and looking at the treatment of Gurbaj, it is not difficult to ascertain that the system, despite removing the ban is out to get him.

After getting rap on their knuckles, Hockey India’s athletes dispute and grievance redressal panel let off Gurbaj with a warning but the instead of matter ending, the matter worsened as Hockey India sidelined Gurbaj by not adding his name in the reserve list of Hockey India League.

After getting banned, Gurbaj’s name was removed from the list of players for auction pool of Hockey India League but when his ban was revoked, Gurbaj Singh only demanded one thing, his name being added in the reserve list of Hockey India League which Hockey India failed to do in order to ‘teach him a lesson’ for dissent.

Looking at the treatment of Gurbaj Singh by Hockey India, the fans of Indian hockey has started a signature campaign demanding that his name be included in the reserve list of Hockey India League. The signature campaign has gained some good following with 300+ signatures in less than 48 hours of petition being put online.

So, what is the campaign aiming to achieve:

1. Indian hockey fans want Gurbaj Singh to be a part of Hockey India League reserve list
2. Hockey fans from India want Hockey India officials to stop its petty politics and not steal a chance from the player who has been a part of Indian hockey for last 10 years.
3. The fans want transparency in Hockey India so that no player should suffer what Gurbaj Singh is going through right now.

The fans stood silent when Prabhjot and Rajpal were banned with now with Gurbaj Singh in the dock, the fans do not want the history to be repeated in case of Gurbaj Singh.

The signature campaign is aiming to collect more than thousands of signatures and then sending the same to Hockey India and Govt of India officials in order to seek justice for Gurbaj Singh.

You can support the campaign by clicking of the link below:

Gurbaj Singh Signature Campaign

If you feel that Gurbaj Singh is getting a raw deal from Hockey India, then please sign the campaign so that Hockey India, the governing body of hockey in India should know what the fans who have supported hockey in good and bad times find out what a player who has given his all for last 10 years is going through.

The post Fans Rally Behind Gurbaj As Signature Campaign Begins first appeared on Give Me Hockey.

50th Bombay Gold Cup from December 7

Jimmy Bhogal — Sun, 06 Dec 2015 16:23:00 +0000

Seven outstation teams, including last year’s champion BPCL (Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited) and runners-up Indian Oil, will be the main contenders for the top prize of Rs 3 lakhs in the Dabang Mumbai – 50^th All India Bombay Gold Cup hockey tournament, which is scheduled to commence at the MHAL-Mahindra Stadium from December 7 to 16, 2015. The event will be conducted under the auspices of Hockey India.

Air India, Army XI, CAG (Comptroller & Auditors General), Hockey Bhopal and South Central

Railway are the five outfits from outside Mumbai that will be seen in action in this prestigious hockey tournament, that is celebrating its Golden Jubilee. The local challenge will be come from Western Railway, Indian Navy and three qualifiers.

Addressing media persons at a press conference on Saturday, MHAL President, Mangha Singh Bakshi said: “Dabang Mumbai, the owners of the Mumbai franchise in the Hockey India League, has come forward to support the Gold Cup and would be the title sponsors. Union Bank of India and Bank of India are also associated with the event as the co-sponsors.”

MHAL Hon. Secretary Ram Singh Rathor pointed out that they postponed the tournament by a month on request from the title sponsors Dabang Mumbai. “Earlier we conducted the Bombay Gold Cup much earlier and last year it was held in November. But this year since Dabang Mumbai have come on board, they requested us (MHAL) to postpone the tournament to December as it would be closer to start of the HIL which is set to commence in January,” said Rathor.

The 12 teams have been divided into four groups of three each and the top two teams will qualify for the quarter-final (knockout).

The runners-up would get Rs 1.5 lakh. Besides the top two prizes there will also be individual cash awards of Rs 10,000 each for the Player of the tournament, Best goalkeeper, defender, midfielder and forward.

The quarter-final and semi final rounds will be played on December 13 and 15 and the grand finale on Wednesday, December 16.

Hockey India has appointed 12 officials, five from the city and seven from out of Mumbai, to officiate and ensure the smooth conduct of this tournament. Mr. H.S.Sokhi from Kolkata has been appointed as Tournament Director and Mr. Varinder Singh from Delhi as Umpires Manager.

The post 50th Bombay Gold Cup from December 7 first appeared on Give Me Hockey.

Presenting Mumbai Ring Hockey League, Yuvraj Walmiki, Adrian D’Souza to take part in it

Jimmy Bhogal — Wed, 25 Nov 2015 16:29:00 +0000

Malad Gymkhana presents

Leading players from the city will be seen in action during the inaugural MRHL (Mumbai Rink Hockey League), to be played under floodlights at the Malad Gymkhana from December 1 to 5, 2015.

A total of 54 players were picked during a players’ draft by the six franchise-based teams that will be vying for the top honours in the Rs 2.5 lakhs prize-money event, which has been conceptualised by former Indian stalwarts Gavin Ferreira and Cornelius D’Costa.

The participating teams and the owners are – Mumbai Phantoms (owner Pranav Ashar), UK United (Ronnie D’Souza), Jabaaz Almedians (Anita D’Mello & Almedian Family), Poisar Pirates (Ryan Fonseca & Francis Cardoso), Wadala Wanderers (Angela D’Souza & Agnelo Dias), Orlem Vikings (Neri D’Lima & Elvis D’Souza).

Olympian Adrian D’Souza, a local goalkeeper from Malad, is the star player of the Jabaaz Almedians outfit, which will be coached by Sunil Singh, while international Yuvraj Walmiki was drafted by the U.K. United with Deepak Joshi as the coach.

Orlem Vikings, coached by Rahul Singh has picked Vikram Pillay, penalty corner specialist Amit Gowda is with Wadala Wanderers to be coached by Ramesh Pillay. The star in Mumbai Phantoms ranks is Vikas Pillay with Mukul Pandey as coach and Merzban ‘Bawa’ Patel the coach of Poisar Pirates will have Girish Pimpale as his star player.

The tournament will feature six teams which will be played in league cum knockout basis.

The post Presenting Mumbai Ring Hockey League, Yuvraj Walmiki, Adrian D’Souza to take part in it first appeared on Give Me Hockey.

Hockey Manager Is Back For World Hockey League Finals

Jimmy Bhogal — Wed, 25 Nov 2015 16:15:00 +0000

One of the biggest things in the world of hockey, Hockey Manager is back for Hockey World League finals which allows you to play the prediction game and gives you the chance to play the role of the manger by forming your team. You can predict the game and form your team at www.hockeyman.net

Recent Example Of Trends

In its simplest version, this free game allows you to easily make score predictions. You mark points based on how near you are from the real results. To do so if not register, start registering thru your favorite social media account, and then click on the Predictions button or link to be redirected on the predictions page.

In order to help you in making the correct decisions, a new feature ‘Trends’ has been introduced with green indicating win, yellow a draw and red a defeat in the matches.

In the more advanced version, as a coach you can build your fantasy team based on players from each engaged team. To do so, once registered, simply click on the Manage button/link of the competition. For the first time in an FIH competition, the Hockey Manager team have been able to collect the field positions of every player engaged in this World League Final. This will allow a better user experience in the game more accurate with the reality.

Check Out Individual Player Statistics

As a coach you can select up to 5 players from a single team, so you will have to spend some time to find the right balance into your fantasy team. To help you in that task you can use the percentage of selection indicator that appears in the player list. This tells you how often a player is selected across fantasy teams.

Teams made by you collect points based on individual players scores and performance, you can get access to statistics by clicking on the player name.

Check The Transfer Window To Buy/Sell Players

For example, the player Ramandeep SINGH have been registered to play 7 games (World League III), have scored 4 goals and had a green card. These statistics are only taking in account the competitions covered by Hockey Manager, thus it doesn’t reflect the exact player career in international competitions.

Not just that, you can even change your players during the transfer window.

To know those open or close windows simply click on the small calendar icon located in the top of your team field. This will open a window with all the key dates and times expressed your local time zone to avoid confusion. Lastly you can choose your team name by clicking the Edit button.

So, what are you waiting for, join in the fun and play against other players of the world by registering yourself on www.hockeyman.net

Also follow Hockey Manager on Twitter and Facebook for more updates about the game.

P.S- We have already registered ourselves for the tournament. So how abot challengeing us there. Are you the best manager

The post Hockey Manager Is Back For World Hockey League Finals first appeared on Give Me Hockey.

Hockey Manager is back for Hockey World League Finals

Jimmy Bhogal — Wed, 25 Nov 2015 16:13:00 +0000

Recent Example Of Trends

In order to help you in making the correct decisions, a new feature ‘Trends’ has been introduced with green indicating win, yellow a draw and red a defeat in the matches.

Check Out Individual Player Statistics

Teams made by you collect points based on individual players scores and performance, you can get access to statistics by clicking on the player name.

Check The Transfer Window To Buy/Sell Players

Not just that, you can even change your players during the transfer window.

So, what are you waiting for, join in the fun and play against other players of the world by registering yourself on www.hockeyman.net

Also follow Hockey Manager on Twitter and Facebook for more updates about the game.

P.S- We have already registered ourselves for the tournament. So how abot challengeing us there. Are you the best manager

The post Hockey Manager is back for Hockey World League Finals first appeared on Give Me Hockey.

Why Hockey India still in silence about Gurbaj Singh?

Jimmy Bhogal — Mon, 02 Nov 2015 16:26:00 +0000

Gurbaj Singh in action for Punjab Police

In what can be considered a historic judgement, Punjab and Haryana High Court quashed the ‘illegal’ ban by Hockey India on midfielder Gurbaj Singh and asked Hockey India to reconsider about the ban. While giving the decision, Punjab and Haryana High Court pointed out that someone from the system (Hockey India) was against him and with him not receiving any sort of communication from Hockey India about joining the camp, it still seems to be the case the officials of Hockey India are against him and are out to get him for questioning the quality of food provided.

Hockey India, taking directive from the directive of Punjab and Haryana High court removed the ban with immediate effect with Harbinder Singh, the head of Hockey India’s disciplinary committee said,’ Considering the court’s decision, the committee members have unanimously decided to lift the ban on Gurbaj Singh with immediate effect and he is allowed to play in all international and domestic tournaments”. This decision made Hockey India an instant hero in the eyes of hockey fans of India but Gurbaj Singh, who was relived about getting the ban revoked, was also worried about his future in Indian team.

Since his ban was revoked (announcement was made via a press conference) he has not heard anything from Hockey India and has also not received any sort of communication apart from the email about his ban being revoked. While the whole team is currently attending a training camp, Gurbaj Singh who has played a key role for India in many matches has received no communication from Hockey India to attend the camp.

When we asked Gurbaj Singh about the decision to revoke his ban, he said he was happy to finally prove that he is innocent and the allegations laid on him were absolutely baseless. But with the happiness, there was also a feeling of despair that he was not asked to join the national camp for the Australian tour. Gurbaj Singh said, ‘I am feeling helpless despite clearing my name. With the ban being removed it was made clear that I did not create any groupism in the team but I still have not been asked to join the training camp.’ Even today Gurbaj Singh who played a pivotal role in Punjab Police in Surjit Hockey Tournament is waiting for communication from Hockey India asking him to join the national camp for Australia series and Hockey World League finals.

When Hockey India banned Gurbaj Singh for nine months, the fans of Indian hockey stood behind Gurbaj and joined hands and urged Hockey India to remove the ban. Taking the advice of the hockey fans, Gurbaj Singh went to court to get his name cleared. Now, once again wtih Gurbaj Singh still on sidelines after getting his name cleared needs support of Indian hockey fans and team mates to get his place back in the team.

It should not come as a surprise to hockey fans that Hockey India is not a fan of dissent or player speaking their minds and Gurbaj Singh by questioning judgement of Hockey India has irked the babus who run hockey in India. It is highly expected of the babus to keep Gurbaj Singh out of Indian side and thus deprive the Indian team a hard working match winner who is very important for India’s hopes in Rio Olympics.

Hockey India should also question the motives of former assistant coach Jude Felix who blamed Gurbaj Singh for creating groupism in the side. Its time Hockey India breaks its stern silence over Gurbaj Singh affair and right all the wrongs done by them in last couple of months.

Hockey fans in India have lot of faith in Narinder Batra and Batraji has done a lot for Indian hockey since taking over the helms. Batraji must now ensure that Gurbaj Singh is given justice and brought back in Indian side from the sidelines.

The post Why Hockey India still in silence about Gurbaj Singh? first appeared on Give Me Hockey.