Negre coming to Delhi

CHENNAI: FIH President Leandro Negre will visit New Delhi early next week. He will discuss in detail the preparations for the hockey World Cup to be held in India in March 2010.

Negre’s visit assumes significance given the concern expressed in some quarters within the Executive Board of the FIH during its meeting at Lausanne a few weeks ago. The major worry seems to be about the security.

Though Negre’s agenda in Delhi remains unclear, sources in the FIH say that he will be in India on Monday or Tuesday. This will be the FIH President’s first visit to the continent after his election.

The World Cup was awarded to New Delhi by the FIH headed by Els van Breda Vriessman to the then IHF, but subsequent events which led to the disbanding of the administration and a takeover by the Indian Olympic Association forced another contract to be drawn up between the FIH and IOA.

The defeat of Vriessman as President raised some apprehensions about the World Cup project. However, the current regime has always insisted on sticking to the schedule worked out by Vriessman and the IOA’s Suresh Kalmadi during the junior Asia Cup at Hyderabad. — Hockey Correspondent