We in stick2hockey.com are very sad to inform the unfortunate demise of one of the upright and honest hockey officials, Mr. T. Jesudanam of Andhra Pradesh.
According to the message received from Jesudanam’s long standing associate Niranjan Reddy, Jesudanam died in the wee of hours of today after a brief illness.
Jesudanam has been President of the Andhra Hockey Association, and was a former vice-president of the Indian Hockey Federation.
He also ably functioned as the Manager of the 1993 Asia Cup, 1994 World Cup and 1996 Chief Minister’s Cup.
He was the one-man inquiry committee that went into the Aga Khan Violence (1995) incidents and had the courage to indict Punjab Police players’s wilful involvement in enacting the crime. He was stickler to rules and regulations, and had often confronted the then IHF regime, almost as a loner.
His boldness in exposing the Punjab Police players involvement in the Aga Khan violence (in fact the IHF then was headed by Director General of Punjab Police)earned him a deserving fair name among the hockey community.
He also headed a sub-committee that suggested change of format of the National Championship. In 2000, the Nationals was held in four cities with a main round at Jammu. This was a grand success, and the credit should go to his ground work.
He was the loner to ask uncomfortable questions at bigger than life KPS Gill, but the issues and matters he argued for were purely for the development of the sport.
It is honestly felt had the views of persons of such calibre are adhered to, the KPS gill regime would not have become an eyesore in the decade gone by.
The towering personality often helped Indian national teams to visit Tirupti temple of which he was a top official.
Early to spot his fortrightness, my first book work — Hockey Year Book 1995 – rightly declared him as the ‘Official Of the Year 1995’.
We reproduce the contents of the above for the benefit of the readers.
There were many tours and therefore many officials…..the silent Jesudanam of AP caught the eyes. The IHF was striving under enormous pressure to do something with regard to Aga Khan violence, it entrusted the task to this IAS officer…he took his own time to submit his report, even suspicion entered the minds of the fans….many even predicted a silent death to the one-man commission. He was to silence the critics shortly. ….His report which came to the light in the first week of Janauary 1996 called the spade a spade. It did not mince words as to who are the culprits. …the manner and the details with which the report was written is an eye-opener for any sports administrator… many knew he did not get necessary support in discharging his task, but he accomplished it admirably amidst enormous pressure and with little support from the IHF.