Hockey India announces 14 women players for defenders training camp

Hockey India announced 14 women players for the defenders training camp under the supervision of Fergus Kavanagh on Monday. Two-time World Cup winner Fergus Kavanagh will work with the senior Indian women's team for a special defenders camp.

Kavanagh will be working closely with 14 defenders identified by Hockey India. He was part of the Australian dream team that won the World Cup 2010 in New Delhi and the World Cup 2014 in The Hague and also won the gold medal at consecutive FIH Champions Trophy from 2008 to 2012 and won the 2014 Champions Trophy in Bhubaneswar.

The Indian women's hockey team qualified for the FIH Olympic Qualifiers 2019 by defeating Asian Games gold medalist Japan by 3-1 in the final of FIH Women's Series Finals Hiroshima recently.

The list includes Salima Tete, Deep Grace Ekka, Lilima Minz, Sushila Chanu Pukhrambam, Suman Devi Thoudam, Mahima Choudhary, Nisha, Gurjit Kaur, Rashmita Minz, Sunita Lakra, Manpreet Kaur, Nikki Pradhan, Karishma Yadav and Monika.

"We had a great tournament at the FIH Women's Series, but we still have to improve in certain areas. We are looking forward to fine-tuning our defensive game with Fergus ahead of the Olympics Test event in August. His experience in coaching will surely help our defenders get better," Chief coach Sjoerd Marijne said.

"A good defensive unit can help the team create more attacking opportunities and subsequently help the side create more scoring opportunities. Therefore, it is imperative for our defenders to be on top of their game in big events such as the Olympics Test event and Olympic Qualifiers in October-November," he added.

The camp will be conducted at the Sports Authority of India (SAI) centre in Bengaluru from July 15 to 21.