Mumbai: Pune Strykers suffered a major blow even before the commencement of their campaign in the World Series Hockey tournament when they lost the services of their captain and ace drag-flicker Diwakar Ram to an injury.
The Uttar Pradesh-born player, who was part of the India World Cup squad last year, has suffered a wrist fracture and has been ruled out for at least three weeks.
Diwakar has been replaced by Rail Coach Factory player Simrandeep Singh, it was announced ahead of Pune's opening tie against Mumbai Marines at the Mahindra Stadium here.
"Diwakar Ram was our first-draft pick and it's unfortunate that he suffered an injury on his right hand above the wrist. He seems to be out of the tournament. It's a big blow for us, but we have to make do with whatever resources we have got," team manager and Olympian Mervyn Fernandis said on Wednesday.
According to Mervyn, the team is a young side with an average age of 25, as per the wishes of franchise owner Manoj Chaudhary.
"We are a young side, the youngest among all the eight teams in World Series Hockey," said Mervyn, who added the team will also be without some India and Railways players, who have not been given permission to play in the tournament.
"We will be without India players Gurwinder Singh Chandi and Kangujam Chinglensana Singh, who is also from the Railways, besides three other Railways players - Vinod Gopi Nair, Amit Gowda and MG Poonacha," he said.
But the team has the services of Roshan Minz and Damandeep Singh, though, they are in the list of 48 probables picked by Hockey India for the national camp scheduled to start in Bangalore from March 5.
Poonacha is also among the camp probables.
Mervyn said the players who have been told not to play in the tournament, jointly organised by HI's rival Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) and Nimbus Sport, were only being told so verbally and not given anything in writing.
"Nothing has been given in writing to these players; they have been told verbally," said Mervyn, a fact corroborated by Pune's newly named skipper Kenny Pereira of Canada.
"We (Canada players) have been told orally (by the Canadian hockey federation) that taking part in the tournament could lead to problems, but nothing has been given in writing.
"I am not bothered as I'm close to retirement," said Pereira, who represented his country in the just concluded Olympic qualifiers in Delhi.
Team coach Gundeep Singh, meanwhile, said the team will depend on the newly drafted pair of Simrandeep and Gurpreet Singh Guri to take care of the penalty corner hits.
Mervyn explained that as per the rules of the WSH competition, each match would be split into four halves of 17 and a half minutes each.
In between the first two halves, there would be a break of three minutes and even in this period (what normally constitutes half time in a regular hockey game) a two-minute technical break can be availed of.
There is a break of 10 minutes in between the second and third halves, he added.
Mervyn said though the absence of India players would rob the tournament of some glamour, the speed of hockey would remain top class.
"The pace of the game is at least four times what we used to play. The extra breaks (for this event) and the rolling substitutions and the abolition of hit-ins have speeded up play," he said.
About Thursday's opening game, Pune coach Gundeep said, "It will be a tough encounter. All the teams in the tournament are of the same level."
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