Goalkeeper Bharat Chetri was named captain of the Indian hockey team in the London Olympics. The 16-member squad and two stand-bys was announced by Hockey India (HI) after trials at the Balewadi Sports Complex in Pune conducted June 6-7.<\/p>\n
According to a HT <\/strong>report, the trials were witnessed by HI selectors BP Govinda and Balbir Singh, alongwith chief coach Michael Nobbs and government observer Harbinder Singh. <\/p>\n Meanwhile The Hindu <\/strong>report says that only two changes were made from the squad that finished third in the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup tournament in Malaysia with striker Yuvraj Walmiki and Rupinderpal Singh being left out, preferring veteran Ignace Tirkey and Gurwinder Singh Chandi in their place. <\/p>\n Walmiki and Rupinderpal\u2019s axing was on expected lines as the duo had been struggling of late. Walmiki has also not fully recovered from the injury he sustained during the Olympic qualifying event in February though he played in Malaysia. <\/p>\n The squad: Goalkeepers: Bharat Chetri (captain) and P.R. Sreejesh Defenders: V. R. Raghunath, Ignace Tirkey, Sandeep Singh Midfielders: Sardar Singh (vice captain), Kothajit Singh, Gurbaj Singh, Birendra Lakra, Manpreet Singh Forwards: SV Sunil, Gurwinder Singh Chandi, Sarvanjit Singh, Shivendra Singh, Danish Mujtaba, Tushar Khandker, Dharamvir Singh, S.K. Uthappa<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the technical committee of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) meeting here on Tuesday will brainstorm about some revolutionary changes to the domestic structure, Ranji Trophy and other tournaments, says a report in The DNA, <\/strong>adding that if approved, the national championship could do away with the existing Elite and Plate formats.<\/p>\n Sourav Ganguly is the head of the committee while Anil Kumble is a special invitee for the meeting.<\/p>\n \u201cIn place of the current two-division Ranji format, the proposal is to hold the championship in one division with teams divided into three groups. Each group will have nine teams. Group A will consist of winners, runners-up and seven top teams of the two Elite groups. Group B will have the remaining teams of the Elite groups and top three teams of the Plate Group. Group C will consist of remaining nine teams in the Plate Group. The eight quarterfinal knockout teams will comprise three qualifiers each from Group A and B and two from the Group C,\u201d says the DNA <\/strong>report.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, three birdies in the last four holes at the St. Jude Classic saw Arjun Atwal register his best finish and the first top-20 of the year on the PGA Tour. Atwal shot 66 with five birdies and one bogey and ended tied 19th with a total of three-under 274.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Goalkeeper Bharat Chetri was named captain of the Indian hockey team in the London Olympics. The 16-member squad and two stand-bys was announced by Hockey India (HI) after trials at the Balewadi Sports Complex in Pune conducted June 6-7. According to a HT report, the trials were witnessed by HI selectors BP Govinda and Balbir […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[1014,2472,1067,1264,848,280,5127,771,544,275],"class_list":["post-7337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-from-the-newspapers","tag-arjun-atwal","tag-balbir-singh","tag-bharat-chetri","tag-bp-govinda","tag-ignace-tirkey","tag-london-olympics","tag-p-r-sreejesh-defenders-v-r-raghunath","tag-sandeep-singh","tag-sourav-ganguly","tag-yuvraj-walmiki"],"yoast_head":"\n