Mumbai: Olympian Viren Rasquinha has blamed some 'vested interests' in the national selection panel for his last-minute ouster from the hockey squad for the Doha Asian Games.
Vowing to fight the injustice done to him, the ace centre-half demanded that the reasons behind his omission be made public.
Rubbishing reports that his omission was done due to lack of fitness, Rasquinha claimed that chief coach Vasudevan Bhaskaran still wanted him in the squad for the quadrennial event next month.
"I was named in the Indian hockey team for the Doha Asian Games about a week ago. The list of 16 members was told to us by the chief coach V Bhaskaran and camp manager Brigadier Siddiqui in Rourkela on November 17, a day after fitness tests and selection trials conducted by the coaches and selectors," Rasquinha said.
"On November 25 morning, much to my surprise and shock, I was informed by Bhaskaran that I had been dropped. He told me I deserved to be in the Indian team on current form and fitness but that he was sorry," Rasquinha, who has played nearly 200 internationals, said.
"Later in the day I spoke to the secretary general of the IHF, K Jothikumaran, and he too told me that I deserved to be in the team and he too was sorry," said Rasquinha, adding neither Bhaskaran nor Jothikumaran preferred to explain to him the reasons of axing him from the squad.
"As far as I know, no one questioned my on field performance or my discipline. I have done five fitness tests in the duration of this camp and in all but one of the 2.4 km run I have finished well under the stipulated nine minutes each time. In the 40 meter speed tests I was always within the top three finishers," Rasquinha said.
The 26-year-old claimed that he had done better than some other players at the camp in Rourkela.
"What about the overall fitness tests and performances over the entire duration of the two-month long training camp," he said, adding he had lost all respect for members of the selection panel, all of whom were Olympians.
"There is a government nominee on the selection panel whose job is to ensure that the selection procedure is transparent. I request the reason for my dropping be made public. I think that is the minimum I deserve," he said.
Saying that it had become a fashion to blame IHF president K P S Gill and Jothikumaran for all the selection blunders in Indian hockey, Rasquinha said in his case, as well as in other recent cases, some insecure vested interests were responsible for the systematic elimination of most of the players who helped India win the 2001 Junior World Cup in Hobart.
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