HI rope in Baskaran to find talent in south India

New Delhi, June 18 (IANS) In the aftermath of India's dismal show in the Hockey World Cup, Hockey India (HI) aims to find fresh talent and Wednesday appointed former captain and coach Vasudevan Baskaran as manager, high performance, of south zone.

Baskaran, who led the team to its last Olympic gold in 1980, will be working under Dutch Roelant Oltmans, who is director high performance.

Baskaran will be working to implement HI's development programme for men's and women's hockey at the grassroots level including school, college and district level hockey in south India. Baskaran will monitor and evaluate the performance of coaches and identify the talent for elite coaching opportunities.

Baskaran will be responsible for Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andaman and Nicobar, Puducherry, Telangana and Seemandhra.

"I thank Hockey India for giving me an opportunity to work at the grassroots in South Zone. I am sure that under the guidance of Director High Performance Roelant Oltmans and with the support of Hockey India member units and academies, we will successfully implement Hockey India high performance programmes in our areas which will further help us to find young talent," said Baskaran.

Baskaran was the captain of the team that won the gold medal at the 1980 Olympics in Moscow. He coached the senior men's national team for ten years. In 1980, he received the Arjuna Award and the next year he received the Padma Shri.