Hockey India (HI) on Tuesday banned several players, including Olympian Devesh Chauhan, and officials on disciplinary grounds.
Chauhan had lodged a complaint that umpire G.S. Sangha had verbally abused him during the semifinal match between Uttar Pradesh and Air India in the National hockey championship at Lucknow last month.
Since Shelar in turn alleged that the home team captain was settling scores with Sangha for a previous incident, HI had summoned the two for a hearing on Tuesday. The HI disciplinary committee banned Chauhan and Shelar as they did not turn up for the hearing.
Eighteen members of the Madhya Pradesh Hockey Academy team were banned for a month for temporarily walking off the field during their match against Odisha in the National women's hockey championship at Bhopal. Their coach Paramjit Singh and manager Usha Nimbalkar were handed a two-month ban and would be on probation for one year from October 1.
Umpire P. Anupama, who did not stick to the umpires’ uniform and behaved rudely during a semifinal match of the National junior women’s championship at Mysore, was banned for two months.
