Air India will come back to Bangalore but only with no Namdhari

In a game that should be remembered for high class Hockey, eventually, will possibly be, remembered for on-field gross misconduct.

In a high-energy match, marked with violent drama, Namdhari XI lost their composure with minutes to spare and gifted a last minute goal to Air India, thereby losing the match to Air India 3-2.

With barely 4 minutes to spare and Air India closing in from all sides in Namdhari XI circle, tempers were high on either sides. The score line read 2-2. At this time, one of Namdhari XI players fouled and was sent away on Yellow card suspension. Namdhari, who are usually seen protesting on every call that goes against them, were not very convinced with this suspension.

Seconds later, in a crowded circle, one of the players swung around his stick and hit Shivender Singh on his knee, with the ball nowhere near either of them. Shivender went down and had to be attended to. As Shivender left the turf, Air India attempted their final attack in their pursuit to win the game.

What followed this resulted in another Yellow card for a Namdhari XI player. He left the field giving a mouthful to the culprit umpire. 2-Yellow cards in a couple of minutes was too much to take for the Namdhari XI as one of their officials called off all the players from the field.

With 2 minutes to spare and Namdhari XI team away from the field, everyone wondered what the next step is. High-volume voices filled the environment as a few people tried to pacify an angered Namdhari XI bench.

After a few minutes, all was set to resume but when umpires didn’t blow the resuming whistle, one realized that the player with the recent-most Yellow Card has taken position in the defense line.

Only when he left the field, play resumed with Namdhari XI down to 9 players. One last aggressive attack from Air India resulted in a just-in-time penalty corner, followed immediately by the full-time hooter.

As the whole Air India team stood on Namdhari XI circle, Len Aiyappa didn’t commit any mistake and the match ended 3-2 for Air India.

An injured and visibly angry Shivendra Singh, who was finding it difficult to walk, told s2h, “Standard at this league in Bangalore is quite poor. They are openly hitting players. Yellow cards are a rare commodity in any game. It’s raining Yellow cards here. We are not coming to Bangalore anymore for this league.”

Deeply concerned about their players’ safety because many of their players represent India, Air India’s Manager, Vernon Lobo, and Coach, Gavin Ferreira, were nowhere close to getting amused by the incident.

An infuriated Lobo questioned if Namdhari has learnt anything at all from their mistakes of the past when (2 years back) they were banned from the league for rough play. Citing Namdhari’s game as “Dirty Play”, he wondered if at such a young age, players are taught to hit like this and not respect the officiating umpire’s verdict, where do they go in the future.

“We came here for hard and competitive Hockey but not for rough Hockey. You can’t raise the stick above the face in International Hockey; it’s a sure Red Card. We are disappointed with one team acting as a show spoiler, “rued Lobo.

Not getting into written complaints, Lobo is very clear that next time it will be either Namdhari or Air India in the Super Division League, Bangalore.

A usually happy-go-lucky Gavin looked disturbed. Talking about the bigger picture of Hockey, he said, “It was obvious that they were trying to injure than play. It’s detrimental for young people watching the game. Moreover, Indians have been labeled as rough players around the World. We need to change that image of ours starting from this level.”

When approached, Namdhari officials chose not to read too much into it. They were appreciative of their team’s performance considering that there were around 7 players in the opponent’s team who are playing for India, currently.

Their final take on the last few minutes of the game was, “Emotions are a part of the game. Our boys played a much better game than ever before.”