Chandigarh, February 21
Did Rajpal Singh of Chandigarh agree to step down as captain of World Cup team in favour of Prabhjot Singh so as forge unity in the team? Sources reveal that he did. Even if he had done so, there was no guarantee that Hockey India would endorse the recommendation of the team coach Jose Brasa and name Prabhjot Singh to lead the home team in the New Delhi World Cup.

At one stage, it was Rajpal Singh against rest of the team. This was the result of the second successive voting over captaincy issue conducted by Jose Brasa.

After the voting Rajpal Singh offered to step down. He even offered to accompany four senior members of the team - Prabhjot Singh, Deepak Thakur, Arjun Halappa and Andrian D’Souza - and coach Jose Brasa to the HI officials to support the change. He, however, had a three-point questionnaire for those who wanted to accompany him.

What in case, the HI agrees to his stepping down and names someone other than Prabhjot Singh as captain? Will the team agree to play under any other player named by the HI? What will be the stand of the players and the coach in case the HI did not accept his replacement by Prabhjot Singh as captain?

Since the coach and players had no convincing answer to any of these questions, they agreed to abide by the HI decision. Besides Prabhjot Singh, others who also thought themselves to be in the run for captaincy were Deepak Thakur - two times Olympian, and Arjun Halappa, as the most capped player in the team. Even Sandeep Singh, who was displaced after tour of Canada, too, would have been in the run in case of Rajpal Singh stepping down.

One major factor that went against Rajpal Singh was the impression among players that he was soft towards the HI over the money matters. Others insisted on a tough stand and use the World Cup as a lever to bargain hard. In fact, Jose Brasa had gone for open voting over captaincy issue not once but twice, one before even the name was not named.

And perhaps that was the provocation for the selection committee to overrule the recommendation of the team coach and insist on Rajpal Singh as captain. Selectors and HI remained on one side while coach Brasa and the rest of the team on the other. At one stage Rajpal had even agreed to be Prabhjot Singh’s deputy in the World Cup.

Failure to get the captain of their choice had the team divided and made players toughen their stand on financial demands, including their decision to ignore “no” from HI in signing agreements with the AMR Foundation for the February 20 match in the city here. It was a different issue that Indian players ultimately did not play the match.

Players favoured Prabhjot Singh not only for his seniority but also for the fact that he is the lone Indian player in the World XI nominated by the International Hockey Federation. Practically, if one looks at the team for the 2006 World Cup and the present team, there are only minor or cosmetic changes, as the nucleus of the team remains the same. In the 2006 World Cup, India had finished eleventh. 

Kila Raipur, February 21
After clinching the world title, World No. 1 Vijender Singh is all set to host a boxing show on the lines of Sylvester Stallone’s Contender fame, which used to be shown on AXN.Talking to the Tribune, the ace boxer who was at Kila Raipur today said he was anchoring the show that talked about 16 famous boxers of the country.

The show was being shot and the life stories of these boxers were being included to make the success stories reach households in the country, he said.

Geared up for the upcoming Commonwealth Games, the youth icon is planning for free style or popularly know as American style boxing after attaining gold in the London Olympics.

“Winning a gold in Olympic is my ultimate goal and I have to achieve it,” he said. Stating that he felt no pressure for being the number one, he said he believed in giving his best punch to knock down the opponent. “I will put in my best. Though I will try to make my country proud with my performance, I am not letting myself taken over by the pressure, “he said. Calling his efforts to be aimed at generating interest in boxing, Vijender said the current bunch of Indian boxers have been successful in drawing the interest of people towards boxing.

“People actually take interest in this game. Though boxers are yet to attract attention like bollywood stars and cricketers but we have come a long way. Things are changing fast,” he said.

Expressing his pleasure at the mammoth response to Kila Raipur rural Olympics, the boxer said he was glad that the village was doing a yeoman’s service by helping raw talent find a platform. “By sitting and watching the games for an hour, I was witness to a lot of raw talent in the stadium. They just need to be polished and can do wonders,” he remarked.

Accompanying him was national coach Gurbax Singh Sandhu, who said players like Vijender made them proud. “He is so goal-oriented and single-minded that I did not have to work much on him. He has a long way to go though,” he said. 

Chandigarh, February 21
Hyderabad-based AMR Foundation, which organised charity hockey matches involving national team members here, today said that the players voluntarily agreed to appear in the event and no commitment to pay them Rs five crore was made.

Hardeep Sandhu, a member of AMR's organising committee and the Foundation spokesman Ansul Nagar said it was "unfortunate" that the players did not turn up in the match that featured some Bollywood stars and TV personalities yesterday.

"There was never a commitment on the part of AMR Foundation to give a certain specified amount to each of the players. The commitment was to equally distribute the proceeds from the match among the 22 players. To say that Rs five lakh was promised to every player is completely baseless," said a statement issued by the Foundation. Earlier, Indian hockey was rocked by yet another controversy with organisers of the event yesterday claiming that the players demanded Rs five crore to feature in the charity matches, an allegation the national team members have denied.

"The refusal by the players at the eleventh honour to come for the match was motivated by demand for Rs five crore for 22-member squad made during his telephonic conversation with captain Rajpal Singh, Prabhjot and Deepak Thakur, which the Foundation was not in a position to pay," the statement read today.

The statement also mentioned that founder of the AMR industrialist Mahesh Reddy had even agreed to raise their purse to Rs 54 lakh for the match appearance by adding from his personal account, but the players did not budge from their revised demand for Rs two crore for the World Cup squad. The organisers of the match also rubbished the players' allegation that all members were not given flight tickets and said that they had enough proof that all the 22 tickets were sent to them and the bookings had been made well in advance. — PTI 

Ludhiana, February 21
Competing with “desi” breeds of dogs for a crown in 100 metres race at Kila raipur, these greyhounds sprinted in the Grewal stadium after traveling thousands of kilometers from America.

As many as 32 grey hounds worth Rs 1.20 core josrtled with each other and desi breeds to be named a winner in the race even as the Rs 4.5 lakh worth greyhound from Florida - named Anybody Anyhow - became the cynosure of all eyes.

The proud owner, Harjinder Singh, sarpanch of Beehla village, was little disappointed when Anybody Anyhow - nicknamed AB - lost in the semi final round.

Another US greyhound owner, Bharpur Singh of Lohatbaddi, who bought it for Rs 4 lakh too was disappointed by a Canadian greyhound named Black Bolt, who won the race by chasing a dummy rabbit with a killer’s instinct.

“I am disappointed but it does not mean I will rue that I spent lakhs on him. He is like a son to me. If your son loses you always wish a better next time to him,” said Harjinder. He imported the dog on November 28 last year. AB has so far participated in nine racing events and won seven. “Kila Raipur was one of the disappointments as I had my eyes on this crown. Actually dog lovers can try their luck for three years only as these dogs age very fast,” he said.

“My brother who lives in US knows my passion for dogs and he struck a deal with a Florida-based dog breeder and sent the dog to me,” said Harjinder.

AB was recently joined by another 18-month-old greyhound Randy, also purchased from America. To make these dogs winners, these dogs are fed on skimmed milk and a packaged diet. “We care for them more than we care about ourselves. Once a dog emerges a winner, it pays up for all the money spent,” he said.

Moreover they are taken care of in extreme summer conditions. “We have to keep an AC switched on for the dogs. Otherwise they can suffer a heat stroke,” he added.