The 18-member squad of Hockey Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) including four players from neighboring Punjab are participating in the 16th Hockey India Junior Men National Championship underway at Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu from July 28 to August 8. The Jammu and Kashmir team, however, played out a 2-2 draw against Maharashtra in its opening match.
As per the sources, four players from Punjab are also representing the Jammu and Kashmir team in the Championship. The Hockey J&K General Secretary, Dr Taran Singh when contacted, confirmed, “Yes, four players from Punjab are included in the team following the guidelines and rules of the Hockey India (HI) and there are no violations.”
He further revealed and claimed that the “No Objection Certificates” (NOCs) have been submitted by the non-domicile players to the Hockey J&K issued by their respective parent academies, adding, “the team was dispatched after proper screening conducted by the Jammu and Kashmir Sports Council.”
However, Divisional Sports Officer (Jammu), J&K Sports Council, Bashir Ahmed, when contacted, said, “We conducted the screening of 14 players for the championship, and all of them were from Jammu and Kashmir.”
Meanwhile, in the opening Division B Pool A match played on Wednesday (July 29), Hockey Maharashtra and Hockey Jammu and Kashmir played out a 2-2 draw. Laxman Chimnaji Metkar (33) and Krishna Viththal Rathod (53) scored for Hockey Maharashtra and Arjun Pandit (30) and Harmanpreet Singh (57) for Hockey Jammu and Kashmir.
J&K Squad (As Per Hockey India Official Website):- Shrivastawa Robin Kumar (GK), Kishan Kumar Nirala, Sameer, Tejpal Singh (C), Singh Kawalpreet, Singh Harmanpreet, Kaushik Vishal, Singh Gamanpreet, Rohanpreet Singh, Mohd Sami, Ahmed Tanveer, Rohit Kumar, Gursharan Deep Singh, Taranjot Singh, Pandit Arjun, Sukhvinder Singh (GK), Mashooq Abrar and Nishant Balotra.