Hockey Erring five get HI’s show cause notice

After the hulla baloo about `stern’ action against errant players, five senior members of the India hockey camp -Arjun Halappa, Adrian D’Souza, Prabhjoth Singh, Sandeep Singh and Sardara Singh -were issued a show cause notice by Hockey India on Tuesday.
Hockey India has also granted them provisional permission to attend the camp from Wednesday, subject to no further violations of code of conduct until July 31, the last day of the camp at SAI, South Centre here.

In a letter addressed to the players, Hockey India has given them time until August 2 to reply to the notice, failing which it will be deemed that the players have no answer to the notice and HI’s disciplinary committee headed by Pargat Singh will make their recommendations to the president.

The players who had left the camp without permission on July 20, to attend he World Hockey Series promotional activity in Mumbai, have been under suspension since last Thursday.
Hockey India has also sternly reminded two players Sandeep Singh and Sardara Singh about the undertaking given on June 29 by the two players who had been dropped from the Sultan Azlan Shah tournament squad earlier this year for playing in overseas tournaments without prior permission from Hockey India The duo had to give the undertaking prior to the Bengaluru camp.

`BREAK COULD PROVE COSTLY’

Meanwhile with the team set to depart for the Asian Champions Trophy on August 27, the team’s exercise physiologist David John is of the option that the six-day `break’ may prove costly for the five players, as they will have some catching up to do in terms of fitness.

“For the past few days they have missed out on the drills, and I feel it will be tough for them catch up with the others in the coming days. This may prove expensive and they may even miss the Asian Champions Trophy,“ said John.

“They have less then a week of the camp left. Even if they start working on their fitness during the week long break, starting August 1, I don’t see them making a big headway unless they really stretch themselves.

“The last 10 days of the next camp would be devoted to skills. So that gives these boys only around 10 days to up their fitness levels,“ he added.