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In one of the rarest interventions by the Government, it appointed former Australian Olympian Ric Charlesworth as coach cum technical advisor for hockey affairs.

The government stance came after the World Hockey body (FIH) threatened to shift the 2010 World Cup from India if their nominee was not given a responsible position.The sports ministry made the decision after India Hockey Federation (IHF) chief K P S Gill met DG, SAI, Ratan Wattal, secretary S K Arora and Joint Secretary I Srinivasan.''We will use his expertise not only for the Men's national team but also for the Women's team and the juniors' team as well. The focus, at the moment is on the Women's Olympic qualifiers,'' Srinivasan saidCharlesworth will stay with the IHF for a period of one year and the governing body might renew his contract after that.Though Gill refused to comment, Srinivasan said the sports ministry along with the IHF will look to work with the Sports Authority of India (SAI) and will be more more keen to work for Asian Games, Commonwealth Games and the World Cup, all of them scheduled to be held in 2010.

''We understand that the players are going through a bad phase and we want to ensure that the players do not go in to a period of mourning

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According to the Indian Women Hockey Federation, the 22 probables will be shortlisted to 18 by the time the team leaves for Russia.Veteran forward Mamta Kharb will lead the team while defender Suman Bala will be her deputy.India will not have it easy as they need to get the better of the United States, Belgium, France, Netherlands Antilles and Russia to make it to Shanghai in August.Squad:Goalkeepers: Dipika Murty, Marita Tirkey, Poonam ToppoDefenders: Binita Toppo, Suman Bala (VC), Rajwinder Kaur, Pushpa Pradhan.Midfielders: Subhadra Pradhan, Gagandeep Kaur, Rosalind Ralte, Asunta Lakra, Th. Ranjita, Manorama Devi Forwards: Mamta Kharb (Captain), Saba Anjum,

Surinder Kaur, Jasjeet Kaur,Ritu Rani, Deepika Thakur, Adline Kaerkett Rani Devi and Pritam Rani Siwach.