Indian hockey divided over skipper for World Cup

New Delhi: The Indian hockey team for the World Cup was announced on Monday with Rajpal Singh named as the captain, but it seems there is division in the team over the choice of captain.

The selection committee -- B.P.Govinda, Madhu Yadav, Sita Mehta, government nominees Ajit Pal and Zafar Iqbal, and coaches Jose Brasa and Harendra Singh were present in the meeting.

Later, Hockey India (HI) issued a statement announcing the 22-member team with Rajpal as captain.

It was learnt that coach Brasa had named senior Prabhjot as captain of the side and also decided to appoint four vice-captains -- Adrian D'souza, Deepak Thakur, Arjun Halappa and Rajpal.

The selectors, however, questioned Brasa's choice, saying that elevating Prabhjot to captaincy would mean that there will be disharmony as he was seen as the face of the player's revolt in Pune.

They also reasoned that there was no reason to drop Rajpal.

One of the players told IANS that the change in the captaincy has not gone well with the senior players in the side.

"The coach had decided on the matter and I don't know how can Hockey India change it. We will wait and see what happens," a member of the side said.

Sources said that speculation over the change of guard seems to have begun in the team bus when the players were going for the trials and Brasa announced that there is likely to be change in captaincy and also four vice-captains will be named.

HI selectors, however, retained Rajpal as captain.

Also, there was little scope of making any changes as selectors had to pick 18 out of 21 probables with S.V. Sunil already out with a knee injury.

Rajpal said the team was looking forward to the tournament.

"Our first aim will be to finish among the top four. The players are putting efforts and we are happy with the preparation," said the forward.

Squad:

Goalkeepers: Adrian D'souza, P.R. Sreejesh

Defenders: Sandeep Singh, Diwakar Ram, Dhananjay Mahadik

Mid fielders: Gurbaj Singh, Vikram Pillay, Arjun Halappa, Bharat Chikara, Danish Mustafa, Tushar Khandekar

Forwards: Deepak Thakur, Gurinder Chandi, Rajpal Singh, Prabhjot Singh, Sarwanjit Singh, Arjun Halappa, Shivendra Singh.