'Pillay Being Preserved For Athens'

Putting to rest the raging controversy surrounding theomission of Dhanraj Pillay from the list of 30 Olympic hopefuls, Indian HockeyFederation chief K.P.S. Gill said the star striker is being "preserved"for the mega event at Athens.

"We never shunted him (Pillay) out. In fact, I toldhim just a month and half ago not to worry since he is being preserved for theOlympics," Gill said in an exclusive interview.

Gill, who had announced the team for the Olympics wouldonly include players who could last the entire duration of a match, declined tocomment on Pillay's fitness.

"Who is the IHF to say Pillay is fit? We will havea camp and would take the advice from SAI, Sports Ministry. They always sendtheir experts. Medical tests are not enough.

"Medical fitness and physical fitness are twodifferent things. I am medically very fit, but cannot say so about my physicalfitness. I will not last 10 seconds on the hockey field with juniorplayers," he said in an apparent reference to the medical report submittedby Pillay that declared him to be fully fit.

Gill said with the Games still three monthsaway, it would be too early to say who would feature in the team.

"How can we name the team three months in advance?No one can do that?" he said adding that the Federation would pick thebest-available team.

"The IHF's stance on all players is that whoever can represent the country inthe Olympics, will represent. There can be no other stance," Gill said.

He also described the controversy surrounding Pillay'sexclusion as "uncalled for."

"It's totally uncalled for. (But) we can't stoppeople from saying what they want. They can ask for any player's inclusion andwe can't prevent them from asking. We have even got letters that some retiredplayers should be included," the IHF supremo said.

"People have said that I have excluded playersfrom the South because I come from the North. But if you see the junior team,there is not a single player from the North apart from Sandeep Singh, who isfrom Haryana."

Gill clarified that when he had said one or two names could be included in the list ofprobables, he did not mean exactly that many.

"One or two is a colloquial term. We can say acouple of more players can be included. When I said one or two more, that didnot mean that the exact number was given."

When asked whether the so-called star tantrums ofPillay had resulted in differences between the player and the coach, Gill said"Not much serious note should be taken of this. These things always happen.But these are temporary things."

On when the team would be selected for the Athens Olympics, Gill said it wouldbe picked during a camp in Germany after a four-nation tournament in Holland.

He, however, said the training in Germany could beconfirmed only after the elections were over.

"Germany is waiting for a green signal. Theelection are tying up everyone here. We will have to speak to the Home Ministry and SAIafter the polls."

Gill also defended the IHF's decision to experiment with theteam despite criticism from various quarters and said the Federation was doingits best to promote the game in the country.

"How is that we are now the Asian Games champions,Asia Cup champions, Afro-Asian Games winners? We are also champions in variouscategories. How did this happen if we are not promoting hockey," he said.

Gill also dismissed criticism that it was he whoselected the team and the selectors hardly played any role.

"We all sit together, have a meeting and thenselect the side. There is no problem with the selection of the team. No one eversaid this team was badly selected.

"We had the problem only during the Australiantour because half of the players were playing in the juniors (Asia Cup)."

On Jugraj Singh, who has been included for the fitness camp at Barog, Gill saidthe step was to help the youngster get back into action at the highest level and itwould be wrong to think he was being tested for the Olympics.

"Jugraj is a very valuable player. The turnaround in Indian hockey wasbecause we had a penalty corner expert after a long long time. Our goal scoringwent up, we could score field goals, we could score from penalty corners,"Gill said.

"But I don't think he will be fit for theOlympics. We have brought him for the camp where he can be rehabilitated forfuture events. The world does not end with the Olympics. If he can come back tothe team, why not, he is a youngster. He has ten years to go."

On India'spreparations for the Olympics, where the eight-time gold medal winners will look to win a medal after 1980, Gill saidthe IHF was concentrating on training.

"We are basically concentrating on thisaspect. Training has to be tough because the Olympics are a different ball gamealtogether. We are good at the Asian level and in four-nationtournaments but are not doing well in the Olympics... We have to ensure that we arein the first four, then there is a chance (of a medal).

"In Atlanta and Sydney we should have been in thesemi-finals but for some elementary mistakes by certain players. We have toensure that such mistakes are not made again.

The IHF chief ruled out appointing a foreign coach in near future but said itwould be considered if a suitable person was found.

"If we find a suitable coach we will certainlyconsider. But we haven't found (as yet) and I don't think we will find it in thenear future. Till the World Cup there is no chance of any foreign coach beingappointed."

Asked to name some of the junior players who hadpotential, Gill said "It is very difficult to predict who will become agood player in the future. Some of them drop out, some stop playing hockey.

"We must now find out who are the players who canperform well against the Europeans. We have proved ourselves in Asia."

PTI