MHA go ahead with Gold Cup hockey despite court case

MUMBAI: The Mumbai Hockey Association on Wednesday went ahead with the holding of the 47th Bombay Gold Cup Hockey Tournament in the backdrop of a pending court case against its managing committee for not holding elections due in 2007.

“We are going ahead with the conduct of the Gold Cup. The City Civil Court order dated April 13th has given us the permission to do so,” said MHA secretary Kehar Singh at a media conference a couple of hours prior to the opening encounter between two Mumbai teams – Indian Navy and Mumbai Port Trust.

Kehar Singh said that after the green signal from the court none, including the Ad-Hoc Committee of the Indian Olympic Association in charge of hockey, can stop the tournament from being held.

“Who are IOA to stop the Gold Cup from being conducted. We have already paid the capitation fees (Rs 30,000) to the Ad-Hoc Committee and they have designated seven umpires for the tournament,” said a belligerent Singh to queries about a letter sent by IOA’s special committee withdrawing permission to the event.

“We have not received any such letter”, he said. Tournament Director SS Walia said, “We used to ask for clear dates from the Indian Hockey Federation in the past and pay the requisite capitation fees to them and conduct the tournament. No other permission was required”.

The Times of India