Hockey India may shift Olympic camp to Bhopal

BANGALORE: Hockey India (HI) on Sunday threatened to shift the Olympics preparatory camp to Bhopal after the union sports ministry and Sports Authority of India (SAI) said they were yet to approve the training and competition schedule for the national team in the lead-up to the London Olympics.

The camp for 48 probables was scheduled to begin at the Sports Authority of India centre on Monday but had to be put on hold as it hadn’t received the green signal from the government.

HI secretary-general Narinder Batra said he would be only too glad to accept the offer from Madhya Pradesh if the sports ministry was “reluctant to back the national team’s Olympic programme.”

“The Madhya Pradesh government said they were ready to bear the entire cost of our preparation for the Olympics, be it training or tours,” Batra told TOI. “We thank them for the gesture and are seriously considering shifting the camp to Bhopal if the central government is not interested in promoting the game.”

Batra said he would expect the sports ministry to finalise the schedule of the camp by Monday. “We cannot afford to waste time. We have qualified after eight years and we mean business. The delay can only have adverse consequences on our preparation,” he said.

Soon after India defeated France in the qualifier final on February 26, HI had announced the camp from March 5, contending they couldn’t afford to lose time as they had only about five months to go for the Olympics. According to the original plan, the fringe players were to have reported at the south centre on the first day with the 18 who turned out for the country in the qualifiers joining the camp on March 15.

However, SAI had thrown a dampener on their plans a week back, saying that the government had not approved any training schedule after the qualifiers. A senior SAI official had clarified then that the programme for hockey was only until the qualifiers. “The steering committee will have to meet and decide on the course to the Olympics,” he had said.

Apparently, the committee did not meet last week despite pressure from Hockey India. SAI executive director (teams) PC Kashyap told TOI on Sunday that he had received the proposal and had requested the ministry to convene the committee meeting. “The meeting will be held in a day or two. The plan should be ready by Wednesday,” he said.

It is also learnt that chief coach Michael Nobbs, who was scheduled to land in Bangalore on Monday, will meet SAI officials on Monday to finalise the revised programme and impress upon them the need to speed up the process.

“I will be in Delhi to discuss the Olympic preparations with SAI. Things should be sorted out soon. I hope to get the camp started as soon as possible,” Nobbs told TOI.