Indian Hockey Federation and Hockey India agree to work together
At long last, the two adversary self-claiming governing bodies, Hockey India (Hockey India) and Indian Hockey Federation (IHF), have reached an accord to form a new unit with new name to run the sport’s affair in the country.
The warring factions are likely to ink a pact today to finalise the disputing matters. The duo bodies agreed in principle to resolve their contradictions at a two-session meeting held with Minister for Sports Ajay Maken in the presence.
The meeting, which was attended by Secretary IHF Ashok Mathur, Secretary HI, Narinder Batra, Rajeev Mehta, Anandeshwar Pandey, Pratap Satpathy and two high officials of the Sports Ministry, was held at the Shastri Bhawan. The participants of the meeting
also proposed names of Indian Hockey Confederation, Bharat Hockey and India Hockey for the new single unit.
The meeting also resolve the matters pertaining to officials of the two warring factions, eligibility of the players being inducted in the World Series Hockey (WSH), a joint venture of IHF and Nimbus Communication, to organise an annual hockey league. HI
will have to settle the matters with International Hockey Federation (FIH) regarding the lavish hockey league and merger unit.
Narinder Batra, the Secretary General of Hockey India, while speaking to the media said that they had a constructive sitting. He stated, “We had a positive meeting. Our stand is clear, we have agreed in principle to all the recommendations by the sports
ministry. Tomorrow, there is another round of meeting and we are looking forward to have an amicable solution to the issue.”
Ashok Mathur, the IHF Secretary, while speaking after the meeting expressed satisfaction over the meeting’s upshots. He informed that they held a joint meeting with officials of the Sports Ministry and Hockey India to settle the long standing disputes. He
added, “The ministry has given us a blueprint of the merger. They have suggested an expanded executive board of the proposed body. They have also asked us to look for an alternative name of the merged body which should be neither HI nor IHF.”
The series of the meeting continued and today both the disputing federations will talk in details about procedures and dealings of the merger.
However, no one from the either side was ready to term it as a merger. R. Shetty, the IHF President, was of the opinion that it could not be named as a merger, but an incorporation of officials from the two warring federations.
The IHF President continued that the new merging unit will be comprised of representatives from due sides and will embody the country in the international fixtures. After finalisation of the name, they will register the new unit in ‘Registrar of Societies’.
It is vital to mention here that hockey was surviving amid plenty of differences from last few years, as Hockey India and Indian Hockey Federation were battling on various fronts to take the reins of the mainstream sport.
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