Five non-Goa based players train with Goans Hockey team ahead of national c'ship

PANAJI

Five non-Goa based players are training for the last two weeks with the Goans Hockey team which is scheduled to take part in the Hockey India Senior Men national championship which will be held from November 4 in Chennai, Tamil Nadu.

The five, who hail from two states Uttar Pradesh and Delhi, have been staying in the Mapusa Youth Hostel ever since they arrived in the state.

The non-Goa players are practicing along with 20 odd Goa based players who play for different clubs in the state league organized by Goans Hockey.

On the contrary, none of the five players are registered with any of the Goan clubs.

Accordingly, they had to take the No-Objection Certificate (NOC) from their respective state association to clear the decks for their journey to Goa and for the onward participation in Goa colours at the national championship.

“They have come to Goa armed with the NOC from their respective state associations, only when they got the NOC they planned for the Goa trip,” said one official, who is in the know of things.

Now the question doing rounds in Goa hockey circles is who initiated the process to bring in non-Goa players.

Sources informed that the process started long back with officials getting in touch with a Bengaluru-based coach to suggest names of players who can play for the state.

According to information available, some of the Goa players who were aiming to represent and who turned up for the training turned their back after coming to know that five non-Goa players were certain to make the trip.

Some of the players asked some pointed questions to the coach Eliter Fernandes and assistant coach Aviraj Madgaonkar in the first week of the training, as to whether he could assure them a place in the squad.

“With these five non-Goa players, can you assure us that we will be in the final squad, I asked the coach,” said one player who left the venue disappointed never to return back for training.

Incidentally, a number of players from both the men and women section left the game unable to face the humiliation of being dropped a couple of days ahead of the National Games 2023.

“Some of the boys who were dropped ahead of the National Games were working in different private firms and they sacrificed their jobs to be part of the team training for 45 days,” said Bank of India employee Conan Fernandes, one of the players dropped ahead of the game.

“They were working in different firms some as delivery boys and National Games 20223 was to be a life changing experience for them in terms of jobs and opportunities, sadly in return these players are still to get their Diet and Traveling Allowance for the days they trained,” added Conan.

“A few girls who have dropped and some of the boys have also quit the game,” added the goalkeeper.

Women team member of National Games 2023 Riya Salgaonkar, dropped ahead of the championship, also confirmed that a few girls left the game including her after the NG fiasco.