Sporting events in doubt after Hockey India and Indian Hockey Federation row for recognition
A tussle between the two hockey bodies Hockey India (HI) and International Hockey Federation (IHF) currently co-exists in India. This conflict now seems to be a never-ending battle that made most of its harmful impact over the confused national players.
Precisely, four Karnataka female players have confronted severe career jeopardy after the Hockey India decided to strike off their names from the list of feasible National squad members to represent India at an International level.
According to the Supreme Court’s last orders, Hockey India will be the acting sports body within the country. Moreover, the players who represent any event that has been organised by IHF will have to bear the consequences.
Due to the communication gap prevailing between the players and federation’s end, Karnataka’s women players VS Ranjitha, Saira Banu, DC Rakshitha and DC Kulsumbi participated in the IHF’s organised Women’s Nationals, currently being held in Bangalore. This
step resulted in a career-threatening outcome for the young players.
All these women were the top performers of their state during the earlier Women’s Nationals that was conducted in Sonepat, earning them a place in the New Delhi National camp for seniors.
They withdrew their names from the nationals after an HI official informed them that they have been dropped from the probables list of the National Camp in Delhi.
One of the players Ranjitha commented, “We had no clue that this was a non-sanctioned event and because of it we were banned from the National Camp. We were participating for Karnataka and that’s all we knew.”
The controversy of who is authorised to run the sport in the country can only be resolved the Supreme Court’s final orders. However, the decision is still pending and awaited by both the parties.
Additionally, the status quo held by the HI allows it to select the team for the international event and ban the players who associate themselves with IHF.
According to an HI official, “We have issued a new code of conduct that stipulates that any player who is participating in a non-sanctioned HI event shall be banned from participating for India. This, however, still needs to be communicated to all players and
since it isn’t many players end up playing for any tournament.”
Moreover, the official shared the fact that many hockey players still want to play in the IHF league due to the pressure from federation. Some of them have no clue about which the correct body is. The four Karnataka players had also been threatened to continue
playing until the completion of the event.
Due to the overlapping dates of the camp and the Bangalore event, the Delhi camp was also delayed for a few days to retain the players distracted to the wrong event.
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