Show me the money!

Indian hockey players refuse to play charity match

Sanjay Bumbroo

Tribune News Service

Controversy marked the exhibition match between Bollywood stars and Indian hockey team as the latter refused to play in the match demanding Rs 5 crore from the organisers. The even was being organized to promote the sport. The organizers held a two and a half-hour long meeting with players at a local hotel to solve the issue. But the negotiation failed. Still the Haryana government announced that it will hand out Rs 11 lakh to the team.

Hardeep Singh Sandhu, organising secretary said they had promised Rs 54 lakh to the players besides air tickets for 22 members of the team including coach and manager besides boarding and lodging facilities. He said last night the players demanded Rs 5 crore for participating in the exhibition match. However, as the amount was much higher they expressed their helplessness and offered them Rs 1 crore.

However, Indian captain Rajpal Singh, who along with Deepak Thakur and Prabhjot Singh, told the media that they were in the city only to seek explanation from the organisers who had started disinformation campaign against them since this morning. He said they had not raised any financial demand and their main objection was on the lesser number of air tickets given to them. He said the organisers had promised 22 air tickets, however, later they were handed over only 21 tickets and one of the tickets was given to a person belonging to the organizers.

Sandu said the hockey team players remained adamant on their demand and later agreed to participate in the match if they were given Rs 2 crore. The organiser did not agree to this and decided to hold the match with former hockey players led by Jugraj Singh, Gaganajit Singh and Kamalpreet Singh.