With the Indian Hockey Federation’s (IHF) revamp in progress following an alleged corruption scandal, transparency in the selection process is the buzzword at the moment. In the middle of all this, comes the strange case of two players being sent to Australia for the ongoing four nation tournament without the new selection committee knowing anything about it.

Amit Kumar, who represents South-Central Railways on the domestic circuit, and former India international Rajpal Singh have travelled Down Under after they were specifically asked for by coach Joaquim Carvalho for the second leg of the tournament, that started on Wednesday. They left early on Tuesday morning.

“We got to know only today that two players are in Australia even though their names are not on the list submitted to the government. We were all shocked by this,” said Olympian Ashok Kumar, a member of the new five-man selection committee.

Little-known player

While forward Rajpal last played for India in the Olympic qualifiers in Chile, few people in the Indian hockey establishment seem to know about the credentials of Amit Kumar. The player has never represented India, even at the junior level, and was not among the 40 probables during the training camp in Bangalore in March.

Sources in South-Central Railways say that Kumar was busy with the inter-railways meet during the camp, and fail to explain what may have prompted the coach to ask for him. Carvalho was unavailable for comments despite repeated attempts to reach him in Australia. The team’s manager RK Shetty, too, declined to speak on the issue.

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