Karnataka’s Shetty takes over from Gill as IHF President

KPS Gill’s two-decade long association with Indian hockey ended on Monday with Karnataka State Hockey Association president RK Shetty replacing him as the President of the Indian Hockey Federation.

In a special general body meeting attended by representatives of 50 state units, the IHF completed its election process and announced the new office bearers that was stayed following the orders of the Patna High Court in October.

“I’ll be lying if I say I am not excited,” Shetty told Deccan Herald. “I am definitely happy but at the same time the job comes with a lot of responsibilities. It is really hard to replace a person like Gill who has contributed immensely to Indian hockey.

“But it is the challenge that I am looking forward to. I have a lot of plans and if everything falls in place I am confident of driving Indian hockey forward. I might not be able to do a miracle but definitely can bring about change,” added Shetty.

Apart from Shetty, the newly-constituted body of IHF will have four vice-presidents — PS Gill (Punjab), Dinesh Reddy (Hyderabad), Jatinder Peters (Uttarakhand) and Farrel Furtado Gracious (Goa), secretary general, two secretaries, two joint secretaries, treasurer and five executive board members.

Ashok Mathur of Delhi has been elected as the secretary general while Suman Puri will don the hat of treasurer. “On October 3 we held our AGM and election but we could not declare the results as the meeting was adjourned after the Patna High Court gave a stay order following a case filed by Sh Ejaz Hussain.

“But the stay order was recently vacated after the court dismissed the case and fined the petitioner Rs 20,000 for misleading the court,” IHF secretary general Mathur said.

“But today the election process was finally completed. We followed all the government guidelines. We appointed a retired High Court judge Justice SK Dubey as the returning officer. There was no contest and all the office bearers were elected unopposed. We will soon send the result to the government,” he added.

While Mathur admitted that there was no representative from the government in the meeting, he said all the proceedings took place under watchful eyes of Dubey.

It is still unclear as to which of Hockey India and IHF is in control of the affairs in the country with both bodies embroiled in legal tangles. While the Delhi High Court in August recognised IHF as the sole national sports federation to run the game in the country, it also allowed Indian Olympic Association to pick the national squads along with Sports Authority of India.

“I am confident IHF will be the body that runs the affairs of hockey in India. We followed all procedures and I hope IOA asks HI to move aside. I personally believe sports administrators should be thinking about the game rather than approaching the court. However, things don’t happen that way here,” added Shetty.