Sack the players, thunders Pargat Singh

Pargat Singh is brutally frank. He wants the five players – Adrian D’Souza, Arjun Hallappa, Sandeep, Sardar and Prabhjot – who left the national camp for a day to attend the World Series Hockey function in Mumbai to be sacked because they have jeopardized India’s preparations for the Olympic qualifiers.

And, if push comes to shove, he will not shy from preparing an entirely new team for the qualifiers.

“This is indiscipline and highly condemnable,” thundered Pargat, who, as the disciplinary panel chief, will submit his views to Hockey India on Friday. “No player is bigger than the nation. I told Sandeep Singh and Sardar, when they went for the Belgium league earlier this year and missed the Sultan Azlan Shah tournament, that the country comes first. We are here because of hockey. I am not against players making money. But not at the cost of compromising national interests.”

Pargat said if players thought otherwise, “we need to say, ‘thank you for your services, please leave’. We can prepare a new team. We may not qualify for London 2012 but at least we can prepare a good team for 2016.”

Pargat, who is also the hockey development committee chairman of HI, said he was pained that the efforts to put in place a system had been undermined by the players.

“We brought coach Michael Nobbs for five years, asked him to put a structure in place. Why do we need it if the players behave in such a reckless manner? For example, the coach may have his own program of rest or competition between Champions Trophy and the qualifiers. But now with the WSH tournament slotted in between these two tournaments, his plans will take a beating and so will our chances at the qualifiers. Has any player given a thought to this?” he said.