We reproduce the joint letter written by about 20 former hockey Olympians and internationals, most of them owe allegiance to World Series Hockey, to Ajay Maken, Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports, Government of India.
The players who signed the letter include Zafar Iqbal, V. Baskaran, Baldeve Isngh, MP SINOGh,
Ashish Ballal, Vineet Kumar, Mervyn Fernandis, Arvind Chhabra, Romeo James, Sanjiv Kumar, Gundeep Kumar, Baljit Singh Saini, Gurbabaksh Singh Grewal, Balbir Singh Grewal, Balwinder Singh, MK Kaushik, Rahul Singh,
Dear Sir,
We are a group of Ex Olympians who have represented our countr with pride and for many years. We have had the honour of representin our country in the the sports of hockey in multiple Olympic games, asioa games commonwealth games and numerous other internaitonla tournaments. We have a among us Padmashrees, Arjuna awardees and Olympic medalist
We are here before you as representatives of Indian hockey which has unfortunatley been thrown into turmoil by vested interests.
As you are aware, the IHF sanctioned the launch of a league called World Series Hockey. Scheduled to be launched this month, WSH has for the first time provided the sport of hockey with something to look forward to. The event has already confirmed player fees and prize money of tens of crores providing hockey players for the first time an opportunity to earn a good living from the sport; On the back of WSH, there have been multiple investments in improving infrastructure in this country also with stadiums which have been grossly unused for years, being upgraded to the level of being able to stage an international level tournament.
Unfortunately for reasons best known to them, the FIH has decided that everything must be done to make WSH not happen. They have from over a year ago been threatening players everywhere in the world that they will ban them from representing their country if they played in WSH. Till date they have been unable to provide satisfactory answer as to what they find wrong with this event to justify such actions on their part.
In addition to this, FIHs representative body in India Hockey India has been harassing players to not participate in WSH. A number of players have been told us that they were forced to sign papers in their rooms in the middle of the night post which some material were typed on these letters and given to the media.
The position that the sport of hockey finds itself is extremely unfortunate. On the one hand, the entire hockey fraternity including the players want to be art of this historical event WSH, on the other hand the players are being harassed by the FIH and hockey India to not play this event. The entire hockey fraternity is up at arms against this destructive tendencies being displayed by vested interests.
We understand from media report that there was a settlement arrived between both the Federation (IHF & HI) before the Ministry and the directions given by the Ministry. In said agreement both parties agreed to not to interfere with the players participation in World Series Hockey. Unfortunately in spite of the same it appears that Hockey India has chosen to completely ignore the arrangement. In the interest of the sport of Indian hockey we humbly request you to use your good office to either ensure a truce between all factions or alternatively ensure that they each focus on their own development of the sport without trying to destroy one and another consequently destroy our national sport.