PRESIDENT OF the ‘dissolved’ Indian Hockey Federation (IHF), K.P.S. Gill, said on Tuesday that he would hand over the junior Asia Cup trophy to the Hyderabad Hockey Association (HHA). “I have asked the HHA to collect the trophy,” said Gill, allaying rumours that he would not hand over the ‘running’ trophy to the Indian Olympic Association’s (IOA) ad-hoc committee. The Asia Cup kicks off in Hyderabad on July 11. After the IOA disbanded the Gill-led federation following the “cash-for-selection” allegations against then IHF secretary K. Jothikumaran, and instituted an ad-hoc committee and a selection panel, things have soured. But Gill said that it (the trophy issue) was the ad-hoc committee members’ figment of imagination. “They are spreading false propaganda,” he said.
Gill is rumoured to have scuttled India’s tour to Poland in May and also allegedly tried to thwart the junior Asia Cup in Hyderabad. “We have been asking Gill to hand over the accounts and all international trophies to the ad-hoc committee, but nothing has happened,” said former player and chairman of the selection committee, Aslam Sher Khan.
“Since it a running trophy we need it in order to give it to the winners of this edition of the Asia Cup,” said Mohammad AslamKhan, member of the ad-hoc committee. “In fact, the Asian Hockey Federation (AHF) competition secretary Mathavan Devadas told us that we’ll have to procure it from the dissolved IHF,” said Mohammad Aslam.
“I believe the trophy has been kept at the Patel Nagar office of the IHF and my colleague in the ad-hoc committee, Rajiv Mehta, has been entrusted the task to get it back,” said Mohammad Aslam.
“I have also told Mathavan to write to Gill as the AHF has an agreement for the trophy with the IHF,” he said from Hyderabad, where the India camp is currently underway