MELBOURNE: Legendary Australian hockey player Ric Charlesworth has been inducted into the inaugural hall of fame of Hockey Australia.

Charlesworth, presently at loggerheads with his Indian employers, is one of the 22 inductees, including 11 female recipients, whom Hockey Australia have honoured. The honouring comes on the eve of the 2008 Beijing Olympics at the Perth convention and exhibition centre.
Generally the Hockey Australia hall of fame reccognise those who have achieved excellence in the international arena for their achievements enhanced the image of the sport.

Richard Aggiss, a member of the hall of fame selection committee, later said that choosing 22 recipients was a dead end task.

The selection was a difficult but exciting process as per him. Reviewing the history of the game delving back to the early 1900’s and making a comparison with those players against the current era made the selection a huge task,” says Aggiss. He also adds that the present inductees are those who retired before year 2000. He promises to induct deserving candidates in coming future.

“Given the enormous success over the last number of years and to best represent all eras of Australian hockey it was decided to limit the initial group of inductees to those players and officials who retired from international hockey prior to 2000,” feels Aggiss.

He adds that he is looking forward to add more names to the hall of fame from the modern era on a regular basis. Each hall of fame inductee was awarded a custom minted solid silver medallion struck by Perth mint.

2008 hall of fame inductees: Ian Dick, Eric Pearce, Julian Pearce, Paul Dearing, Brian Glencross, Robert Haigh, Ron Riley, Ric Charlesworth, David Bell, Warren Birmingham, Mark Hager, Evelyn Tazewell, May Campbell (nee pearce), Audrey James (nee jones), Wendy Pritchard (nee butcher), Mavis Gray (nee beckett), Dianne Gorman (nee dowd), Marian Aylmore (nee bell), Robyn Bannerman (nee downey), Sharon Buchanan, Liane Tooth, Jackie Pereira.

CHENNAI: The Indian skipper Anil Kumble is quietly confident of his side’s chances in Sri Lanka. He was quiet clear of India’s victory in the three-Test cricket series. “As a Test team we have done exceptionally well in the last year or so,” said the Indian captain in Chennai. “Like always, this time too we will put up a good show and ensure a series win.”

Even though several members of the team had participated in a week-long camp in Bangalore, Monday marked the first time the 16-man squad came togther for training. After two sessions of stretching, parted by a game of competitive touch rugby, the players were later divided into three groups and got engaged in fielding drills. The squad worked on close catching and ground fielding for nearly 30 minutes before shifting to the ‘open’ nets.  Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag were the first pair to bat, which was followed by Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar, and V.V.S. Laxman and Sourav Ganguly.

Dinesh Karthik and Parthiv Patel tried hands behind the wicket in the nets. Both keepers also spent time with fielding coach Robin Singh. India coach Gary Kirsten was also present at the moment closely monitored the training, clipboard in hand, when not throwing down spiteful bouncers from 16 yards. “We have had some criticism for not practising enough, but this team actually practises a huge amount,” says Kirsten.

Kirsten was excited about the seam-bowling talent India has while facing Sri Lanka. “It’s nice to have Zaheer back,” said Kirsten troubled Sehwag with in-duckers on Monday. Kumble was conscious of the importance of the bowling attack working in partnerships. “It is about team work, not just the spinners handling the load alone,” says the ace spinner. Kumble feels that as generally the team knows the wicket well, it becomes the responsibility of four or five bowlers to ensure a winning series in Sri Lanka.