Post Asian Champions Trophy Controversy: Hockey India chief must be sacked

India's dramatic win in the Asian Champions Trophy was the stuff of true grit, but Hockey India's indifferent reaction to felicitating the achievement displays a pathetic state of affairs

The relatively inexperienced Indian Hockey team’s victory in the inaugural Asia Cup Hockey on the 11th September is now history. The ground reality was waiting for the team once it reached India. Starting from the bus which picked them up from the Airport to inadequate hotel accommodation, everything smacked of the attitude of the Government as well as the media at large towards our national sport; in one word- INDIFFERENCE. The icing on the cake came when the Hockey India, during its so called “felicitation” of the Hockey players offered them a cash reward of Rs 25000/- per player! The players, being self respecting individuals, most righteously declined to accept it and conveyed the reasons of doing so to the Secretary of Hockey India, Narinder Batra. The initial ripples were in the Facebook and Twitter. Then the earthquake hit the media, and by the 14th September Arnab Goswami the NDTV anchor was at the Hockey India’s throat, tearing it down to bits in the evening prime-time public debate. Quite understandably, Narinder Batra was not prepared to face Arnab Goswami who had tasted blood and was unstoppable with his maurauding questioning.

Anyone in his senses in Narinder Batra’s place would have kept a low profile with given the public uproar which his unthoughtful gesture had generated. Not so with Batra. He tried to justify his actions by explaining that Hockey India was short of cash and it had offered the players as much as it could. If the cash wasn’t there, why make such a ridiculous offer and be the butt of everybody’s joke in the country? How was it that Ajay Maken, the Union Sports Minister immediately came up in damage control mode and made a relatively decent offer that the players finally accepted? Is it not expected that the outcome of such a ridiculous offer should have occurred to the person in charge of the apex body which is supposed to run the sport in the country? Is it too much to expect this minimum intelligence of a person in his position? Or is Hockey our national game only for namesake and actually a fringe sport for all practical purposes and is considered as such by the high and mighty ot the extent that continental champions are to be doled out small change which a Ranji Trophy cricketer would refuse? Couldn’t the HI Chief have approached the Sports Minister and sought his help beforehand? The situation is disturbing, to say the least. Some people in this country, the author included, work for grassroots revival work in hockey on a voluntary basis, away from the ambit of the State Associations and the glare of publicity. Such efforts are bound to have some results at least, and more players will come up, some of them even might break into the elite level. But what awaits them after top level achievements is there for all to see. It is evident that the heads of many sports bodies at the national level were selected/elected/nominated by virtue of being the stooges of a well known career crook politician who earned the pinnacle of notoriety during the last Commonwealth games held in Delhi and is at present cooling his heels in the Tihar jail.

How can Indian Hockey thrive if its present chief is to continue? It is the third rate file pushing bureaucrats of this category who need to be purged from the sports scene on an urgent basis and replaced with capable administrators with VISION. Whether the apparently well meaning Sports Minister Ajay Maken proves equal to the task needs to be seen, but he has no other option if Olympic Sports are to have a future in this country.