Five Indian hockey veterans banned from training at the national camp – Hockey News
In response to the slipping away of the five senior hockey players of India from Bangalore’s national camp namely Arjun Halappa, Sardara Singh, Adrian D’Souza, Prabhjot Singh and Sandeep Singh on July 21, Hockey India (HI) has banned these players from returning
to the camp for their training.
The players had left the camp without permission to attend the launching of the controversial body’s unsanctioned event, the World Series Hockey (WSH) that was held in Mumbai.
Due to such con the players created a hurdle between the two bodies from getting merged. Both the bodies have been given an ultimatum to get merged until today, July 25 by the Sports Ministry in a meeting to be held in New Delhi.
The Sports Authority of India (SAI) will make decision over the players’ unprofessional behaviour after the commencement of today’s meeting.
The players had returned the next day and had a talk with SAI officials on Saturday, who allowed them to stay at the campus until today but were refrained from attending the camp.
According to one of the sources, “The players reached the SAI campus on Friday night. They met (camp in-charge) SS Grewal, who allowed them to stay at the campus. On Saturday morning, they had a meeting with the SAI officials and it is decided that though
they can continue to stay at the campus, they cannot participate in the training sessions till Monday at least.”
On the other hand, Pakistan’s veteran hockey star, Rehan Butt on July 24, announced that despite the fact that he and his team-mates signed up with IHF for playing the WSH, they will not take part until it gets sanctioned by the International Hockey Federation
(FIH).
Salman Akbar seconded his fellow player by saying, "We would love to play in such a high-profile event as it is financially also very rewarding but I would not risk my Pakistan career for it."
FIH recently has declared the WSH as unrecognised and that IHF is not the authorised body to run the sports in the country.
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