Igor Stimac releases six players from the list of 37

Indian football team's national coach Igor Stimac on Monday released six players from the list of 37 who had assembled for the preparatory camp in New Delhi, which kicked off on May 21.

Vishal Kaith, Germanpreet Singh, Nandha Kumar, Redeem Tlang, Bikramjit Singh, and Sumeet Passi have been released from the list of 37 players.

"I am very happy with the efforts put in by all the players till now. There is a serious competition to get into that final list of 23 who would be representing the country in the King's Cup," All India Football Federation quoted Stimac as saying.

"We have released 6 players who are to go back. Each one of them has been given an individual working programme which is to be executed in the future by themselves in an attempt to improve on their fitness, and technical, and tactical abilities," he added.

The Indian team is currently preparing for the King's Cup which will be played in Buriram, Thailand from June 5-8.

India had previously participated in the King's Cup in 1977 and 1981.

"We have accomplished Phase-1 on our working programme. We have had meetings with the staff, and players about their work accomplishments until today. We have informed them about expectations for the following week," Stimac said.

India plays their first match in the King's Cup against Curacao on June 5.

The hosts Thailand will take on Vietnam on the same date. The winners of both the matches qualify for the finals, while the other two teams would play the play-off for the third spot on June 8.