Reports | SAI coach Piyush Dubey joins senior men's hockey camp

Sources in the Indian team management have confirmed that Piyush Kumar Dubey has joined the national camp at the Sports Authority of India (SAI) Centre in Bengaluru. Dubey will be working at the camp involving 34 core men's hockey players which will be held under the supervision of Hockey India’s High Performance Director David John and analytical coach Chris Ciriello. However, there has been not been any sort of official announcement by HI yet about Dubey's role in the camp.

"Yes, he is here part of the camp, but it's David and Chris who will be calling all the shots. It could be that Hockey India wants to groom somebody for the future by letting him work under experienced coaches," one of the sources told TOI.

Dubey's name was in the rounds as someone reportedly being looked at by HI as an assistant to the new chief coach who is still to be appointed after Harendra Singh was removed following India's exit from the quarter-finals of the World Cup in 2018.

Meanwhile, HI has extended the deadline for applications for the coach's job from February 15 to February 28.

Dubey, who works with SAI and the Allahabad University, was part of the group of 25 coaches that went to Birmingham in 2016 on an exposure trip which was specifically aimed at learning how to combine coaching with sports science.

The Indian men's hockey team will start their new season with the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup in Malaysia from March 23.