Gill rules out Ballal return

Gill rules out Ballal return
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE

New Delhi, June 27: The Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) president KPS Gill ruled out the possibility of recalling goalkeeper Ashish Ballal to the national team, which is curently preparing for the Sydney Olympic Games.

``There are going to be no last minute changes. We are going to stick to the probales' list that has been pruned after the first camp,'' Gill told The Indian Express.

The IHF has recently added a player to the pruned list of 24 probables -- the 25th player, who will join the second preparatory starting on July 3 in Bangalore, is Anurag Raghuvanshi, a former Air-India Academy player.

Has the Federation been too harsh on Ballal for speaking out his mind after the Asian Games triumph in 1998? Does he deserve a chance to at least prove his fitness? ``The Federation did get in touch with him a couple of months ago,'' was all Gill would say.

The `Bring back Ballal' campaign has been on for quite some time now and sources say even chief coach Vasudevan Baskaran was keen on trying out Ballal at the first preparatory camp in Bangalore. Even the IHF supremo seemed to have forgiven Ballal when he said some time back a ``fair chance would be given to all''. Ballal has remained out of reckoning and the selectors refuse to talk about it.

Ballal's absence has revived the career of Mumbai 'keeper Jude Menezes. Menezes and Edward Aloysius are likely to make the trip to Sydney.

As for Ballal, the Bangalore player has refused to talk about the controversy, and continues to work out daily to keep in shape. Meanwhile, the IHF chief said the Indian team was a likely to play a home Test series against South Africa prior to the team's departure for Sydney. ``If the South Africans refuse, we'll try to contact Egypt. They are are a decent side,'' Gill said.