Rajpal backs HI ban

India hockey team captain Rajpal Singh on Monday backed the decision of Hockey India, to impose two-year bans on ‘indisciplined’ senior players Sandeep Singh and Sardar Singh.
Rajpal said the federation was right in banning the players, who deserted the national camp in Bengaluru on August 23, citing “family matters”.

“Discipline is important in every sport. And if it needs to be maintained in the team, strict action has to be taken. The seniors guide their juniors and if such things are done by the seniors, then no juniors will follow rules or standards. I feel the federation took the right decision,” Rajpal said.

Of late, Indian hockey has been in the news all for wrong reasons.

However, Rajpal said things were coming back on track now.

“Things have calmed down now. We are making every effort to lift the standard of the team, but things like this sometimes de-motivate us,” said the recently reappointed national captain, who was conferred the Arjuna Award on Monday.

“The team’s morale is high. We chose not to talk

Badminton star Jwala Gutta, India’s first woman world shooting champion Tejaswini Sawant, fly-weight boxer Suranjoy Singh and star footballer Sunil Chhetri also collected their awards consisting of statuettes, citations and a cash prize of `5 lakh personally.
Chhetri said, “The moment my name was announced for the award, I froze. It’s a proud moment to get the award from the President. I will never forget why I got it.” For boxer Suranjoy Singh, the honour was a step to many more awards he wishes to receive in future.