Balbir retained in new 10-member HI selection panel

New Delhi: Former India captain Col. Balbir Singh is the lone selector to have retained his place in the newly-constituted 10-member national selection committee announced by Hockey India. Apart from Balbir, none of his former colleagues – BP Govinda, Muneer Sait, Arjuna awardees Madhu Yadav and Sita Gusain -- found a place in the new panel which has three female representatives in Rekha Bhide, Rajbir Kaur and Sita Mehta. Other members of the selection panel include Syed Ali, Manohar Topno, Harpreet Singh, Anil Aldrin and the duo of Thoiba Singh and AB Subbaiah, who will double up as selectors apart from discharging duties in the newly-formed development committee. The new selection panel was formed after a meeting of the HI development committee here today under the chairmanship of former India skipper Pargat Singh. In today`s meeting the committee discussed various issues, including the vacant coach`s post of both the men`s and women`s national team."The committee decided to call the Indian coaching and support staff applicants for their presentations and discussions to the capital on January 22 and 23," a HI release stated. "The presentations and discussions with the foreign coaching and support staff applicants will be held subsequently," it added. The HI also appointed former India coach and Olympian Sukhvir Singh Grewal director for coaching and development for both men and women. Incidentally, the sports ministry had already replaced the long-serving Ajit Pal Singh and Zafar Iqbal with former India captain Dilip Tirkey and Olympian Harbinder Singh as the new government observers.HI selection committee: Col. Balbir Singh, Syed Ali, Rekha Bhide, Rajbir Kaur, Manohar Topno, Thoiba Singh, Harpreet Singh, AB Subbaiah, Sita Mehta, Anil Aldrin. PTI