Asia should have more representation in FIH: Gill

NEW DELHI: Sports minister MS Gill, on Friday, expressed disappointment over the controversial referral system introduced in the hockey World Cup for the first time and said the FIH needs to have more representation from Asia in the management of the sport world over.

Gill said with the International Hockey Federation earning half of their revenues from India, the nation should have greater say in the affairs of world hockey.

“I feel Asia should have more participation in the management of hockey and in the referral system. I have already told this to FIH president (Leandro) Negre,” Gill said during a luncheon meeting organised by the Sports Ministry for reporters covering the World Cup.

“FIH’s main earning comes from India. India contributes 50 per cent of FIH’s revenue. The Netherlands comes next. World hockey has to have India and Pakistan in the management of the game.

“I had discussions with Mr Negre and he is keen that Indian hockey should come up once again. He is keen that India should host more international tournaments,” Gill added.

The sports minister also expressed satisfaction with the home team’s performance in the megaevent, saying as long as the players and coaches give their 100 per cent he has no issues.

“As long as the players are giving their best I am happy. As a sports minister, my focus now is on the Commonwealth Games, and then the Asian Games, 2012 London Olympics is also not far away. The players have to train hard, play as a team without any irritation or infighting. They have to be disciplined, dedicated and give their best,” Gill said.

“The same goes for the coaches. Their job is to do their very best with the team. As long as they are doing it, I am content,” he said.

Gill said barring a few issues, he was happy with the way the World Cup has progressed so far.

“More or less, it has been a good tournament in a world class stadium built in just 14 months time. It encourages us to conduct more hockey events in future.

“We have noticed a few little shortcomings and glitches but they will be taken care of. It is a new stadium and the tournament is a good learning experience for us,” he said.

The sports minister also apologised to the media, who were restricted from covering the national team’s practice session at the Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium in the run up to the World Cup on the pretext of security.

“We rapidly got the stadium ready and security surrounding the tournament was a worldwide concern. The tournament organisers, the Delhi Police and the participating teams all had their concerns. So I am sorry if any inconvenience is caused to anyone,” Gill said.

FIH had, on Thursday, issued a new deadline to Hockey India to sort out its affiliation issues and conduct the much-awaited elections by May 31 and the sports minister too said that he was in favour of free and fair polls at the earliest.

“HI elections are purely an internal matter but off course it has to be done and there is no doubt about it. From the beginning, I said that I want fair and clean elections acceptable to India.

“The three formula for this is clean electoral role, independent presiding officer, not from the parent body or the Indian Olympic Association and thirdly secret ballot,” Gill said.

On the India-Pakistan encounter, which the home team won 4-1 in the opening day of the tournament on February 28, Gill said, “There were on and off breaks in sporting ties between the two countries, so the match was a special occasion. The entire world wants to see India-Pakistan hockey.

On the country’s preparedness for this year’s Commonwealth Games, the Minister said, “In January, the hockey stadium was given to the country and in the next month the shooting range, which is the best in the world.

“By May most of the venues will be complete. But there were some issues with the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium which forced us to push its deadline to early June,” he said.