HI allow suspended players to join camp, conditionally

Uthra G Chaturvedi

The first effects of the temporary truce, called by Hockey India (HI) and the Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) by signing an agreement to jointly run the sport in the country, was seen on Tuesday evening when five senior players, who had skipped the national camp for a promotional event for the IHF-backed World Series Hockey, were allowed to rejoin practice.

The players — Adrian D’Souza, Arjun Halappa, Sandeep Singh, Prabhjot Singh and Sardar Singh — had been barred from training with the rest of the probables at the ongoing national camp in Bangalore since Friday pending disciplinary action.

Following the reconciliation, HI were forced to backtrack on their earlier resolve of taking strict action, though they have issued a show cause notice to the players to explain their actions.

“This show cause notice is being issued to you for leaving the in-progress national coaching camp at SAI Centre, Bengaluru, on July 20 without prior permission of Hockey India.

“This is seen as an act of gross indiscipline…you are hereby required to reply to this notice latest by August 2 on why action should not be taken against you,” the notice reads — a copy of which is with The Indian Express.

“If no reply is received from you before the last date, it shall be deemed that you have no answer and the Disciplinary Committee shall be free to make its recommendations to president, Hockey India. In the meantime, you are granted provisional permission to participate in the ongoing camp till July 31 subject to no violations during this period,” it adds.

Second offence

Apart from this immediate provocation, goalkeeper Adrian has also been asked to explain why he left the Pune camp in June 2010 while Sardar and Sandeep have been asked to explain their second offence in recent months despite apologising for skipping the pre-camp for Azlan Shah tournament where they had promised not to repeat their actions.

“They will be allowed back into training with the rest of the players from Wednesday but it’s conditional,” a team official said. “Whatever their justification be, it was not the right thing to do. They left the camp without permission and so we have sought explanation from them. We will keep their responses in mind before deciding whether to take any more action,” he added.