SATURDAY 3 March,2001

Cairo Winners Return Quietly

New Delhi: Even victory could not bring any cheer on their faces. The Winners of the 3rd edition of the Akhbar El Yom Invitational Cup, India, returned home quietly, without anybody taking a notice.

The team reached Mumbai air-port today at 16.00 hours. Seven players – goalkeeper Bharat Chetri, Aftab Ahmed, Kanwalpreet Singh, top-scorer Arjun Halappa, Radhakrishnan, captain Baljit Singh Chandi, Brojen Singh – were asked to go to Chennai. They will be joining 17-member Indian teams that is playing against Germany in the home Test series. The 24 players will be undergoing a camp for five days before the team for the Prime Minister Gold Cup to be held at Dhaka is announced. The 10-nation tournament will commence on 10th of this month.

Four players chose to stay at Mumabai for taking up Inter-Railways and Inter-Services challenges. Anup Anthony and Jagdish Ponnappa returned to their hometown Bangalore from Mumbai. Five players and coaches- Rajinder Singh, Chhatarpal Singh- and umpire Satinder Kumar Sharma reached Delhi by Jetairways around 17.00 hours. Yours truly was the only pressman to receive them at the airport.

The team manager and an another IHF official flew directly from Cairo to Delhi. It’s below dignity to travel alongside players and coaches!

Palpably unhappy about the ignoring of their hard earned success by the Indian Hockey Federation, the players and coaches who landed in Delhi half-heartedly obliged for a photo and were not keen or enthusiatic about to discuss the tour.

The only IHF official present there in the airport booked two taxis and placed both coaches in one and the rest in the other. The players were dropped at New Delhi Railway station from where they would pick up train for their further journey. It’s non-stop for Paramjit Singh, for example, of Punjab Police, who had to travel another 9 hours in train to reach Jalandhar.

No surpirse therefore none of the media could get to know the arrival and dispersal of the team, so also the whole of India.

The IHF claims that the ongoing Indo-Germany Test Series and the start of Dhaka event within a week did not give them enough time and opporutnity to arrange reception. It is difficult to buy. Had Bombay Hockey Association been informed, they would have arranged a reception at Mumbai airport itself. And, there were n-number of ways to do that.

SOME STATISTICS ABOUT THE WIN

With five goals against his name, forward Arjun Halappa is the top scorer of the meet.
Amarjeet Singh of ONGC, comes second with four goals.
Brojen Singh, Chanderpal and Chandi scored 3 goals each.
India scored only two goals from penalty corners.
Except Kenya, all other teams were senior sides and were on equal terms with every other.