Players from state who were promised Rs 5 lakh each after Asia Cup win last year are still waiting

Dhananjay Roy

Patience it’s said is a great virtue. But there are times when this trait can leave you livid, especially when money is involved. Consider this, just over a year ago India was basking in the glory of two major sporting successes. The young side led by Mahendra Singh Dhoni had triumphed at the World T20 Championship in South Africa and many players had become millionaires overnight.

The Indian hockey side too had enjoyed one of it’s rare spectacular moments when it stormed past Korea in the Asia Cup final in Chennai.

While organisations and corporate houses were falling head-over-heels to shower cricketers with monetary prizes, the hockey players too managed to get their voices heard in this melee and some awards were announced for them also.

Still Pending

And while some of these awards were handed out promptly, some like those announced by the Maharashtra government in favour of the three players and coach Joaquim Carvalho who belong to the state are still pending.

Goalkeeper Adrian D’Souza, midfielder Gurbaj Singh and striker Shivendra Singh along with Carvalho were due to receive Rs 5 lakh each for their contribution to the Indian cause. But they are still waiting for the money to arrive.

“We got a few calls from the sports department of the government asking us when we were likely to be available for an awards ceremony to be organised so that these prizes would be handed over to us.

“Since were were busy with our preparation for the Olympic qualifiers, we could not arrange for a suitable date till April. But after that there has been no intimation,” said Carvalho yesterday. It may be recalled that some other states like Karnataka and Haryana too had rewarded their players for their performance.

No Response

Repeated calls to the office of Sanjay Kumar, the secretary of education and sports department were met with the response, “Saab abhi meeting mein hain.” And the one time he was on line, he was prompt in disconnecting the phone, claiming he was in a meeting! He also failed to respond to a message. Efforts to reach the state Sports Minister were futile.