NIS Centre of Excellence grooming young hockey talent

Patiala, Mar 30 (UNI) With Indian hockey in a state of sorry affairs today, the Punjab government has decided that ll out of 20 districts of the state would have an astro-turf, to give a fillip to the game.

Interestingly, the NIS in Patiala too has taken a wise step to have an additional astro-turf on its campus for which the work is already in progress. The existing astro-turf at the NIS is soon to be replaced by a brand new astro-turf for which global tenders have already been floated.

Encouraged by this dramatic scenario, the hockey coaches at the Centre of Excellence (CoE) in NIS are pretty hopeful of producing some outstanding players who are likely to don India colours, specially during the 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi.

Talking to UNI here today, the chief hockey coach at CoE, Inderjit Singh Gill said, ''I am keeping an eye on at least six most promising and upcoming players who could be the pride of Indian hockey in the near future.'' Mr Gill is credited with having produced some outstanding players like, Deepak Thakur, Prabhjot Singh, Sandeep Singh and Kamaldeep Singh.

The six players who are being watched by GIll are--- 18-year-old Amit Veer (drag flicker) from Shahabad, Haryana, 16-year-old Amolak Singh(drag flicker) from Kapurthala, Punjab, 21-year-old Pawan Bassi (center forward) from Una, Himachal Pradesh, 17-year-old Keshav Dutt (goalkeeper) from Shahabad, Haryana, 17-year-old Paramjit Kumar(full-back) and Deepanshu Bhargava (right-in) from Punjab.

The CoE came into being in 2000 and it has been doing a good job.

Currently, the NIS executive director, Laxman Singh Ranawat, is taking all pains to ensure that the CoE is equipped with the best possible facilities for grooming upcoming players in the country to resurrect Indian hockey.

UNI