‘Kalmadi & Co sports mafia’
Peeved at the repeated postponement of Hockey India (HI) elections and the affiliation process, former captain and Hockey Punjab secretary Pargat Singh criticised IOA president Suresh Kalmadi, calling him a “sports mafia” responsible for stalling the process.
“Kalmadi and his men got scared after he failed to get nomination from Maharashtra despite putting pressure on the Maharashtra Hockey Association and that’s why they deferred the elections,” said Pargat, claiming that HI used the recent court order as an excuse.
“They cited the Rajasthan High Court order as the reason but all they had to do was to submit an application to vacate the stay and go ahead with the elections,” Pargat, who is also Punjab’s sports director, said.
“It’s because of such sports mafia that players go to the extent of revolting against the federation,” he added.
Addressing the media, Pargat said that Hockey Punjab’s affiliation was deliberately stalled in a bid to ensure Kalmadi’s election as HI president. “I would call them Kalmadi’s lackeys, who came to me and said in no unclear terms that Hockey Punjab would get affiliation if we agreed to support Kalmadi for the president’s post. I said we’re not interested in any trade-off and they made me run round for 10 days before giving us affiliation.
“Kalmadi has messed up Indian hockey and is playing dirty games. People like him don’t even bother about the country’s image. Even if the World Cup is shifted out of the country, they would not care,” he added.
‘No time for hockey job’
Kalmadi refuted the allegations, saying that he was not interested in running Hockey India. “I’m not connected with Hockey India, I have the Commonwealth Games to look after and I’m not getting into all those things. It’s all a figment of his imagination,” the IOA chief said.
“It’s them (the rebels) who have moved the court and not us (which led to the postponement of the election). If I wanted, I could have been the president of the Maharashtra Hockey Association,” said Kalmadi.
In a statement later, Kalmadi said: “I have no time or interest in taking over hockey. I have a national duty to perform to ensure that the Commonwealth Games are conducted successfully. I am also responsible for the smooth conduct of the coming hockey World Cup being staged by the IOA and FIH being the joint chairperson of the governing board,” he said.