Top Indian hockey players reject HI’s menace
A few of top players of the Indian hockey team have flayed severe criticism on Hockey India, the governing body of the sport in the country, saying that no one can kick them out from the national squad.
Many players of the current squad have penned their contracts with the World Series Hockey, an unstinting hockey league which has been entrapped in a series of controversies before starting its journey.
The WSH, a franchise-based hockey league, is a joint venture of the Indian Hockey Federation and Nimbus Communication on lines of the Premier Hockey League, which is now defunct.
As per the claims of the Indian Hockey Federation, some 60 players within the country have signed agreements with the body for the glamorous hockey league.
However, the situation became more abominable when the current governing body of the sport, Hockey India indirectly threatened the national players to stay away from the private hockey league, as the IHF is an unrecognised sports body.
Narinder Batra while talking to the media said that playing for the national squad is not a joke and the board would have no other option except to hire new players, if current stars prefer to join IHF’s league at the time of training camp.
However, a prominent name of the Indian team, Sardara Singh has completely rejected the HI’s warning saying that no one could throw them out from the team, as it has not been decided thus far which is the governing body of the sport in the country; whether
Hockey India or the Indian Hockey Federation.
Sardara Singh in hard state said, “HI cannot throw us out. The players will not shy away from participating in a camp or international tournament. Before running into speculation, let us wait for the Supreme Court to announce which is the official body,
HI or the IHF.”
Another Indian player, Sandeep Singh was of the view that if he is a good enough to be part of the national squad, then he definitely would be selected. He further said that such a racy tournament like IHF will be beneficial for the players as well as the
sport.
Meanwhile, newly-elected Chairman of the IHF, RK Shetty said that HI had no right to halt the players from joining the lavish hockey league. He said, “Hockey India cannot stop the players from participating. Players are joining the league by themselves.
We haven’t forced them.”
Among the prominent names who have joined the league thus far are: Rajpal Singh, Sandeep Singh, Sardar Singh, V R Raghunath, Diwakar Ram, V S Vinaya, Ravipal Singh, Sarvanjit Singh, P R Sreejesh, Rupinderpal Singh, Vikram Kanth, Danish Mujtaba, Birendra
Lakra, Gurvinder Singh Chandi, Mandeep Antil, Roshan Minz, S V Sunil, G M Hariprasad, Adam Sinclair, S K Kuttappa, Shivendra Singh, Arjun Halappa, Gurbaj Singh, Adrian D'Souza, Bharat Chetri, Bharat Chikara, Prabodh Tirkey and Tushar Khandekar.
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