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Carvalho denies Azlan Shah rumour
LAST UPDATE: Tuesday, 6 May 2008 - 11:39:03 PM
CHENNAI: National coach Joaquim Carvalho on Tuesday dismissed reports that he had asked three players to skip the Azlan Shah hockey tournament, while denying that he himself was 'pulling out' of the event despite being part of the team management.
"When I am interested in my players' career, will I ever pressurise anyone not to play and that too for the country?" Carvalho said.
"I can only rubbish the media reports. The players' have the right to confide as to why they have withdrawn from playing," he added.
Earlier, media reports claimed Carvalho had asked Tushar Khandekar, Baljit Singh and Samir Baxla to return home from the just-concluded four nation hockey tournament in Australia, instead of departing for the Azlan Shah tournament in Malaysia.
Carvalho, however, dismissed the report and said the players knew themselves how difficult it was to get back a seat after giving it a miss.
"I am perplexed as to why the media is writing such news items without checking up the facts," he said.
Asked if he was indeed "pulling out" of the tournament despite being named an observer, Carvalho said, "As far as my coming back home, this was decided even before I took the team to Australia for domestic reasons and also I badly needed rest since being away for from home for 12 months.
"I had already obtained permission from Mr (KPS) Gill even before I took the team to Perth for the four nation tournament. I had to get my son admitted in college and only for this reason, I had opted out of the Malaysia tour," he said.
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