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Visa delay gives hockey team, coach the jitters

BANGALORE/NEW DELHI: The Indian hockey team got off to an embarrassing start in the new year, spending nail-biting moments before procuring visas
to Argentina for a four-match test series. Sources also told TOI that the team went to the airport in auto-rickshaws from their Karol Bagh hotel, Paul’s Court, where they spent the past few days after a busy camp routine in Bhopal.

Tuesday’s incidents left the ad-hoc committee of the IOA, managing hockey affairs in the country, with egg on its face as coach in-charge Harendra Singh walked in to the airport lounge with the visas of the team just minutes before their departure. The delay in visas forced the team to miss its scheduled flight to Mumbai at 6pm. Their departure from Delhi had to be put off by over three hours, sources told TOI.

Hours earlier, the players were reportedly denied a team bus with the excuse that there was no parking space near the hotel. A member of the ad-hoc committee admitted that there was a delay in obtaining the visas for the tour, but claimed that the players were taken to the airport in a bus.

“The bylanes of Karol Bagh are narrow, so the bus had to be parked about 50 yards away from the hotel where the players were staying. They went to the airport in that bus,” said Mohammad Aslam Khan. “As far as visas are concerned it’s the Argentina embassy which caused the delay. We had sent the requests in time.”

The inexplicable delay in the appointment of a manager – Karnataka State Hockey Association secretary K Krishnamurthy was informed about his new role only last week – only added to the woes as he landed in New Delhi on Monday.

Obviously, that forced Harendra to double up as the manager for a brief while. That the coach was able to get the visas in time might have spared the ad-hoc committee the blushes but clearly, the body could have done with better planning. The team will reach Argentina on Thursday before taking on the hosts in test matches at Mar Del Plata on January 18, 19, 21 and 22.