Olympians question motive of FIH, write letter to Govt

Mumbai, Feb 13 (PTI) Six Olympians have accused theInternational Hockey Federation of taking away all the profitsgenerated at the World Cup in Delhi and written a letter tothe government to stop the world body from repeating the actduring the Champions Trophy allotted to India this year.

In a letter to Sindhusree Khullar, Secretary in theMinistry of Youth Affairs and Sports, the former players havecharged that by continuing to support Hockey India andcontrolling the affiliation, FIH has shown disrespect to theIndian Government which has recognised only the age-old IndianHockey Federation (IHF).

V Bhaskaran, V J Philips, Gurbax Singh Grewal, BalbirSingh Grewal, Surinder Singh Sodhi and Aloysius Edwards havealso accused Hockey India, which they said was a creation ofthe Indian Olympic Association (IOA) as an ad-hoc body, ofpreventing units affiliated to the IHF from fielding teams inthe National Games in Jharkhand that began yesterday.

"The Sports Ministry (MYAS) has, in its correspondencewith the FIH in August 2010, had clearly intimated/informedthat IHF was the sole body recognised by the Government as thenational sports federation," the Olympians wrote.

"The Government has also informed the FIH that HockeyIndia, a private body as stated by themselves in court andpublicly and which was sponsored/supported and recognised bythe IOA, was de-recognised following its non-compliance andinability to fulfil the norms set by the Government to beable to qualify as a national sports federation." (more) PTISSR RSY PM