Indian cricketers to give monetary help to hockey players

MIRPUR: The Indian cricketers are contemplating offering monetary help to the national hockey players, who ended their indefinite strike on Wednesday only after promised payment of dues and incentives.

A team source said senior players were discussing the matter though a final decision was yet to come.

“There has been a talk on this but I don’t know if any final decision has come out or not,” a source in the team management said.

It is also learnt that former captain Sunil Gavaskar, who is here on a commentary assignment, initiated the move to raise Rs one crore for the hockey team and the idea appealed to India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and senior player Harbhajan Singh.

Gavaskar pointed out that Delhi was hosting the World Cup starting next month and the cricketers could not be indifferent to the plight of the hockey players.

The 22 hockey players resumed training after offered Rs one crore and Indian Olympic Association president Suresh Kalmadi brokered a deal between the players and the cash-starved Hockey India.

The 16-member Indian cricket team, meanwhile, reached Chittagong this evening by a GMG Airlines flight.

Newly appointed bowling consultant Eric Simons will join the team on January 16, a day before the start of the first Test at Zohur Ahmed Chowdhury Cricket Stadium.