Faridabad: Hockey India is all set to start the popular Indo-Pak hockey series from next year.
In a bid to improve India’s ranking as well as give the senior team a chance to play higher ranked nations, HI secretary-general Narinder Batra said that a series with Pakistan on home and away basis will be a mandatory fixture in the calender.
“The basic planning will be to play against Pakistan plus two other top-ranked nations every year. We have already sent an invitation to Pakistan for a series next year. The following year (2014), we will be touring Pakistan. Apart from Pakistan, we plan to play against Australia, the Netherlands, Germany on a regular basis.”
According to the association’s master-plan, there will be an India ‘A’ team, which will be the bridge between the national U-21 and the senior squad.
Meanwhile, HI also announced that the power of national coach Michael Nobbs will be clipped by the hiring of a high performance manager.
“We intend to appoint a high performance manager by end of next month. He will be overseeing the performance of both men’s and women’s teams with the senior national coaches reporting to him. His job will be to see the successful implementation of coaching from senior to sub junior,” Batra stated. He added that Nobbs is supportive of the idea.
The appointment will be finalised next month. (PTI)
