Clouds of Corruption Surround Hockey

Lately, a meeting of the select group of Hockey India High Performance and Development Committee took place wherein some key decisions were made. Presently, a few members of the committee have raised an allegation stating that they have been kept out of the loop although some important decisions were made such as shifting the senior team chief coach Harendra Singh to the junior team.  

The committee consists of a total of 21 members. Shri R.P Singh is the head of the committee. Among the members are HI president, CEO and coaches and scientific advisors of the men, women and the respective junior teams, the chairman of the selection committee and a Sports Authority of India invitee. The surprising part is this that only three members of the committee i.e. Harbinder Singh, BP Govinda and Syed Ali – other than RP Singh have signed the minutes of this meeting that was held on January 7, 2019.The reason behind the ignorance shown towards the committee members involved with the senior men's team has not been known till date. As per the minutes sent by Hockey India, a select group' was called to review the current position of the men's national programme and make necessary recommendations for 2019. It is extremely amazing that Harendra Singh, who is one of the key stakeholders and other members were not informed about the meeting. One of the members stated that he came to know about the meeting way after it was held. He was neither informed or invited to attend the meeting. He felt extremely sad about this mishappening. He hopes that the sports ministry and the relevant authority takes action on this. For the past one and a half year, Jude Felix was the coach of the junior team and under his guidance the team was performing satisfactorily. The team backed a silver at the Youth Olympics and felt that the core probables needed to work further to make progress ahead of the 2021 Junior World Cup. But, to the surprise of everyone the coach’s job has been offered to Shri Harendra for the junior team. Alongside, no communication concerning this has been made to Felix, whose contract is until May this year. The Committee has already decided and planned the exit of Felix. They are prepared to hire a new coach if in case Harendra refuses to take charge of the junior team. Hockey is a team game. It involves a group of players and each player’s performance is important in the team. Every player’s performance is analysed and reviewed after the quarter finals of the World Cup to check that all the players are in the required form or not. As per the minutes of the meeting, the performance of only one player has been monitored i.e. Sreejesh. The minutes state that his performance at the World Cup is 'below par'.

By: Anuja Arora

Content: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/hockey/top-stories/select-group-took-call-on-harendra-singh/articleshow/67520629.cms