Hockey India President Narinder Batra in presence of FIH President Leandro Negre, BJP President Amit Shah, BCCI President Anurag Thakur (who, incidentally is one of the Vice Presidents of Hockey India), IOA Secretary General Rajeev Mehta, DG- Sports Authority of India Injeti Srinivas and Sports Minister of India Mr. Vijay Goel announced the 16 members squad for the both men’s and women’s hockey event at the Rio Olympics 2016 in New Delhi today.
The women made it to the Olympics after a break of 36 years. They are in Group B with Argentina, Australia, Great Britain, Japan and United States.
Women’s squad: Savita (GK), Navjot Kaur (midfielder), Deep Grace Ekka (defender), Monika (midfielder), Anuradha Devi (forward), Poonam Rani (forward), Vandana Kataria (forward), Deepika (vice-captain and defender), Namita Toppo (defender), Renuka Yadav (midfielder), Sunita Lakra (defender), Sushila Chanu (captain and defender), Rani Rampal (forward), Preeti Dubey (forward), Lilima Minz (midfielder), Nikki Pradhan (forward).
Standby: Rajani Etimarpu (GK) & H. Lalruatfeli
Support Staff: Neil Hawgood (Chief Coach), David Ian Bell, (Analytical Coach), Kumar Chidambaram Rajarethinam (Coach), Helen Rao (Goalkeeping coach), Mathew Stuart John Tredrea (Scientific Advisor), Sonika Sudan (Physio) , Amuthaprakash Perumal (Video Analyst), Poonam Rani (masseuse)
The men’s team is placed in Group B with Argentina, Canada, Germany, Ireland and Netherlands in contention.
Men’s squad: PR Sreejesh (captain and GK), Harmanpreet Singh (defender), Rupinder Pal Singh (defender), Kothajit Singh (defender), Surendar Kumar (defender), Manpreet Singh (midfielder), Sardar Singh (midfielder), VR Raghunath (defender), SK Uthappa (midfielder), Danish Mujtaba (midfielder), Devender Walmiki (midfielder), SV Sunil (forward and vice-captain), Akashdeep Singh (forward), Chinglensana Singh (midfielder), Ramandeep Singh (forward), Nikkin Thimmaiah (forward).
Standby: Pardeep Mor, Vikas Dahiya (GK)
Support Staff: Roelant Oltmans (Chief Coach), Roger Van Gent (Analytical coach), Tushar Khandker (Coach), Matthew Eyles (Scientific Advisor), Shrikant Iyengar (Physio), Kenjom Ngomdir (Team doctor for the two teams).
India has named Sreejesh PR as the Captain of the Men’s team in a possible step to stay away from the recent controversies involving the star midfielder.
Both the teams have a miss out each, if compared to recent teams- while women’s team is without Ritu Rani who was captaining the side till recently and dropped for non-performance & poor attitude, Men’s team will miss Birendra Lakra, the key defender of the team who misses out the Rio-bound team due to injury.