The Hockey India executive board decided on Friday to continue the nine-month ban on midfielder Gurbaj Singh, and the player declared that he would take legal recourse since the decision practically rules him out of contention for the Rio Olympics.
The 27-year-old Gurbaj, one of the most talented players in the team and unarguably the fittest, was banned for nine months by the federation’s athletes’ redressal committee in early August for “disciplinary issues and creating rift in the team”.
He had appealed against the ban but the HI executive board that met here and heard all sides — Gurbaj, former coach Jude Felix on whose report the decision was taken, and Harbinder Singh, who chaired the previous committee — decided to go with the existing decision.
“We heard all presentations and looked into every thing, including the reports and previous cases of transgression, before taking this decision. This was not a formality; we considered all angles. The nine-month ban will continue,” HI president Narinder Batra told The Hindu .
Gurbaj said: “I have full faith in the country’s legal system, and I will take legal recourse to get justice. They have repeatedly failed to give any substantial reason to justify such a long ban. This only indicates that the entire thing was pre-planned, including the report against me.
“I still don’t know what indiscipline issue has been made out against me. Even Jude hasn’t mentioned any specific incident.
“If this is the decision on the basis of the feelings of a coach, I don’t think it’s logical,” a visibly hurt Gurbaj told The Hindu .
He added that if the federation did not want him to play for the country, it could just have told him straightaway.
“I was out of the team for almost two years. I came back on merit and proved myself. If they still don’t want me, they can say so openly,” he said.
The federation, on the other hand, has said that Gurbaj can further appeal his case at the general body meeting in October if he files it within 30 days, though there seems to be little hope for a change.
What remains mystifying is that while Felix’s report is the basis of the decision, no one from the present team or the management has backed the accusations. And neither the previous committee nor the executive board had sought their input.
The nine-month ban period makes Gurbaj ineligible to play till May 9, 2016.
