Our credibility was at stake: Sahara

BANGALORE: Abhijit Sarkar, corporate communication head, Sahara India said that his organisation had to intervene on Wednesday and come up with a contribution of Rs 1 core for the welfare of the hockey players as the situation was going out of hand.

Sarkar said that the top brass of Sahara had been discussing the issue for the past 24 hours and finding out ways and means to put an end to the standoff.

“We have paid around Rs 1.77 crore to Hockey India as part of our fresh deal a few months ago. But as sponsors, we are not authorised to ask them how they spent the money. So we decided to make a one-time contribution, to be paid to the players.”

The Rs 1 crore, kept in a suspense account, is over and above the money Sahara will pay HI as part of the deal which stretches until 2011.

“We had to resort to damage control because our credibility too was at stake. We thought that our commitment to the sport would be questioned. Here we are paying sponsorship money to the federation and at the other end you see that players are getting nothing.”

Sahara will seek information on every paisa paid to the players from this account. “It is a conditional payment.”