HI secretary retreats on feud

The Hockey India secretary-general Narinder Batra has taken a step back in his tiff with the chief selector and celebrated Olympian Col. Balbir Singh.

Clarifying his stand, after Hindustan Times carried a report ‘Chief selector miffed with HI top boss’ on Sept 24 saying that Col.
Balbir Singh had decided to miss the trials in Bangalore (Sept 25-26), Batra said it was ‘miscommunication’.

“Col Balbir is the senior member of our hockey fraternity and we all respect him, not only because of his age but also for his contribution to the sport. There was some misunderstanding and misinterpretation of my communication, because of which Balbir ji missed the trials. He is the national selector and henceforth will be attending all the trails,” he told HT.

“There are lots of other things, including the junior programme and building of the development team that I wanted to discuss with him. I don’t know how things were misinterpreted.” The selection committee chief decided to skip the trials after Batra directed him to first meet him in New Delhi and explain the conversation that took place during a party hosted by Col. Balbir in Jalandhar on Sept 18 for selection panel members, officials and government observers.