Players unhappy with HI ‘reception’

Gaurav Kanthwal, TNN

CHANDIGARH: The felicitation party for the hockey stars on Tuesday night may not have had much worth remembering, but its portents were not good either.

The insult for Asian champions began right from the moment the Indian team landed at the airport. It started with the bus. “The look of the bus peeved players no end. But more was to follow,” said an official accompanying them.

The players reached the hotel to learn that Hockey India had booked fewer rooms than required. “We were kept waiting for more than two hours at the reception. The lack of rooms meant players had nowhere to go,” a player said.

“The party had just started when Rajpal came to me and conveyed players’ resentment and refused to accept Rs 25,000 as reward money,” said an official accompanying the team.

National camp co-ordinator Sukhvir Grewal, who had been travelling with the team, also admitted that there was a sea change in the morale of the team once it reached India.

“Be it Hockey India or sports ministry, nobody is really bothered about players. A young team which played out of its skin to win a major tournament does not deserve such shabby treatment. After so many hiccups, there was a slight glimmer of hope but officials made sure no such good thing happened in the sport. There are people in the management who are capable of turning a positive into negative,” he said.

Meanwhile, Punjab deputy chief minister and Hockey Punjab president Sukhbir Singh Badal did not let an opportunity of one-upmanship go as he announced Rs 25 lakh for each member of the squad. In a press release, he congratulated the “national heroes for bringing this rare honour to a nation starved of sporting glory”.