Key Indian players pull out of World Series Hockey

NEW DELHI: In an interesting turn of events, six key members of the national hockey team, including four seniors, “pulled out” of the World Series Hockey (WSH) – to be held from December 17 to January 22 — saying they would be rather attending the national camp in the capital for the Olympic qualifiers.

They also asked the WSH organisers to postpone the tournament in “national interest”.

In a letter, addressed to Hockey India secretary Narinder Batra and signed by skipper Bharat Chetri, Tushar Khandker, Yuvraj Walmiki, Sreejesh, Sandeep Singh and Sardar Singh, the players said they would be available for selection to the national team for the qualifiers, which would be held in the Capital in February.

The organisers of the WSH, however, said that they were yet to get communication from any WSH player regarding their non availability for the inaugural edition of the event.

The players wrote: “We are writing to you to advise that we are not playing in the WSH and that we will be attending the national camp in Delhi for the Olympic qualifiers.”We signed the contract with the WSH under the impression that WSH will not force us to only play in WSH and ask us to leave the national camp. We appeal to WSH to postpone their tournament till after the qualifiers in national interest. We will play for our country as it is a matter of honour and pride for us.”

Reacting to this sudden development, the WSH organisers hinted that the letter could be fabricated. “We have heard about a supposed letter that has been purportedly signed by a few players of the Indian team. We find it extremely odd that players would have chosen to write to a third party to withdraw from World Series Hockey, especially since this third party has nothing to do with this historic event,” Nimbus Sport COO Yannick Colaco said.

“We thus are unable to judge whether this supposed letter is a fabrication or an extortion. What we do know for a fact is that not a single WSH player has communicated in person or e-mail to us regarding their non-availability.

“We have had confirmation from all our players that they are excited to be a part of this event which will finally give the sport of hockey its proper due. WSH players have been in constant touch with their franchise coaches even during the draft process (28th November). We look forward to working closely with the all the stakeholders of Indian hockey, including the players, franchisees, coaches and fans, to staging a hugely successful inaugural edition of World Series Hockey,” Colaco said.

Sardar was to lead the Bhopal franchise in the eight-team event, while Khandekar is in the Bhopal team along with Sardar. Sreejesh is one of the goalkeepers in the Chandigarh side and Chetri is a custodian in the Chennai team. Sandeep and Walmiki were to play for Karnataka and Mumbai respectively.