CHANDIGARH, JULY 25 : With a vew to developing hockey at grassroots level, Hockey India today announced appointment of former coach Sukhvir Singh Grewal as the Manager, High Performance (North Zone). This move by Hockey India will further ensure its commitment towards identifying, developing and giving such players an international platform to showcase their skills in the game of hockey.
Sukhvir Singh Grewal will take charge on August 1, with the North Zone comprises Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Chandigarh, Rajasthan and Delhi.
Prior to the appointment of Sukhvir Singh Grewal, Hockey India also had appointed V Baskaran for South Zone. With this Hockey India also aims to put in place similar initiative in Central, East and West zone soon. The Manager High Performance of each zone will work under Director High Performance Roelant Oltmans.
This initiative by Hockey India will also help State Member Units and Academies to get in place a more robust system towards the player development in individual regions. Having coached the Indian men team for five years 1987 – 1992, Grewal understands the nuances of identifying, understanding and then developing a player in the right manner. He will also monitor and evaluate the performance of coaches in Hockey India Member Units and Academies and identify the talent for elite coaching opportunities. In consultation with Director High Performance, Sukhvir Singh Grewal will create, maintain and develop technical content for dissemination.
Speaking on the new appointment, Dr. Narinder Batra, Secretary General, Hockey India said, “Hockey India today welcomes Sukhvir Singh Grewal and I would like to tell him that we are very happy that he accepted our proposal to be the Manager High Performance in the all important North Zone. In the past we have seen that this zone has brought to the forefront many world class players and who have made us proud. Hence this zone becomes very important for us as we are sure that there is a dearth of talent in this zone which needs to be skillfully developed”.
Speaking on his appointment, Sukhvir Singh Grewal said, “I thank Hockey India for starting the initiative of High Performance Development Programme at grassroots level in the country. Hockey has totally changed in the past few years, by starting this initiative at grassroots level, we can expect better results from Indian hockey in the coming years at international levels and even it will help us to create a greater pool of players”.