In India only cricket is doing well: Dhanraj

Piyali Dasgupta, TNN

Former Indian hockey captain Dhanraj Pillay said, “Let me clarify that it was not the sports minister, but the Hockey India Federation (HIF) who had made the announcement of ‘25000 award money. Now the matter has been clarified by the sports ministry and finally they have announced reward cash money of ‘ 1.5 lakh to each player. But, one thing is for sure – in India, only one sports is doing very well and that is cricket. We’ve to learn from them and from BCCI about how they made cricket so popular.”

He added, “We’ve to learn how they’ve got sponsorship coming into the game. The HIF should learn from BCCI on how to make hockey popular.”

“If this kind of reward being given to players after winning first inaugural Asian Champions trophy, it is an embarrassment. A shame. I would say that the federation should realise that hockey is running because of hockey players,” he added.