A last-minute intervention by the Secretary, Union Sports Ministry, helped avoid India’s pull-out from the Azlan Shah hockey tournament on Tuesday.
Hockey India had announced the withdrawal of the team from the tournament to be played in Ipoh, Malaysia, from March 9 to 17 because of lack of funding by the Sports Authority of India (SAI) but by late afternoon on Tuesday, the government intervened to sort things out.
After SAI granted HI clearance at “no cost to government”, the latter announced that it was pulling out of the tournament but a meeting between SAI Director-General Gopal Krishna and Union Sports Secretary P.K. Deb helped resolve the issue.
The government would bear the expenses towards air fare, baggage and insurance, leaving the rest of the expenditure for HI to handle, as had been proposed earlier.
‘Retaliatory’ gesture
In his reaction initially to SAI clearing the team without even paying for the air fare, Batra had alleged that it was a “retaliatory” gesture by SAI since he had filed a police complaint against the security officer at the National Stadium on Sunday last, leading to the arrest of the security officer. He was later released on bail.
A SAI official rebutted Batra’s accusation and stated that SAI’s decision initially had nothing to do with the incident and it was based on what had been decided at the “annual calendar and training and competition” meeting held on October 5 last.
The official said that the Azlan Shah tournament was never part of the funding agreed upon at that meeting, though Batra had a different story to tell and challenged SAI to produce the minutes of the meeting.
Batra said that the government had always borne air fare expenses and this time also SAI was requested to foot the bill.
Batra said out of the total expenditure of around Rs. 30-35 lakh needed to field the team in the Ipoh tournament, SAI was supposed to bear only the air fare that would come to about Rs. 12-15 lakh.
The SAI official, however, said that its component of the expenditure would come to around Rs. 25 lakh.
SAI had apparently scaled down the allocation for hockey following its budget having overshot the initially-approved figure, leaving it with a total of Rs. 11.77 crore in the current financial year.
HI was told to manage its entire programme within that allocation.
Keywords: Indian hockey, SAI, Sultan Azlan Shah Cup, Sports Ministry
Go India go. Wishing our National Hockey Team success in the Azlan Shah hockey tournament.
Simply raise income tax on earning of overpaid crickters to cover Hockey and other sports expenses.
We have to work on the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi as well as Dr B R
Ambedkar to ensure equality and eliminate discrimination and injustice.
Gud luck Hockey India.
I love my India!!!!!!!
Instead of telling HI to not cross the mere budget of 5.94 crore. Why not sport ministry increase the budget. Even smaller countries like Holland have a higher budget and good Hockey facilities in their country and that's why their team is so good.
When it comes to cricket, a single player is getting auctioned for 6-10 crores. Here a national sport of country as a whole is struggling for funds close to same range. what a discrimination!
It is indeed a shameful moment for all Indians. How can we call ourselves a future super power in the global economy. How much have we progressed since the time when Indian football team could not participate in the 1950 FIFA World cup due to excessive travel expenditure. Apparently, the situation remains unchanged. I would request HINDU to find out if there any way individuals like me can contribute to this cause and make sure that the Indian team participates in this tournament.
people should stop spending time and money watching cricket in stadium and on cable or tv . This will teach the authorities a good lesson for ignoring our national sport Hockey.
This is very saddening to hear that we are not even interested to bear air fares for our national team, if this is the case 5 years down the line, we may not even be having an active hockey team.
Our approach towards sports should be re-looked into. I still have a hope that our sports ministry will intervene and settle these issues once and for all.
if we don't have budget for our teams air fare expenses, then for what are we spending our sports budget?
Thanks for bringing this up.
Those who deny travel business class several times a year on our money. How in the world can they deny funds to the national team of the national sport?
This is a country which respects caste, money etc but not sporting talent. It's in our blood to be honest. This started when Dronacharya refused to recognize the talent of Eklavya and Karna but accepted Arjuna (who was a golden egg laying duck). No wonder cricket is taken care but not other sports.
India's National Sport should be Money Making and not Hockey.Its really shame for the country that SAI cant sponsor the Natinal Hockey Team.
It's a commentary on the way mandarins run "sports" in the country.And
it's not cricket's fault.
Those who have problems with cricket/cricketers/the money they make
should pray for "public funding" of cricket too and rejoice at the
results.
Cut the budget of MPs' travel by 5%. That should cover our hockey team's
annual budget.
We call hockey our national game. These bureaucratic process, political
control and unclear decision process is killing sportsman spirit in our
country.
What a shame!!! Hockey is our national sport and still government has no
plans to revive it ; Damn ..
Oh , thats a shame on India Sports Association body,What about the career
of our Hockey Player. Why sports always Cricket team but not our Hockey
team,,Why Indian Cricket team is getting such high salaries & still they
loose at ends or depends on other team runrate to qualify,
Shame on this Spots body
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