Air India coach demands Gill resignation

Jalandhar, Oct 4 (UNI) Taking strong exception to the release of Indian Airlines (IA) players by the Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) for the 62nd Senior Hockey Nationals and not granting permission to the Air India (AI) players to leave the national camp at Rourkela, an annoyed AI coach Peter Sardana today asked IHF chief K P S Gill to quit.

''It is high time for Mr Gill to quit in the interest of hockey.

He should step down immediately and make way for somebody to serve and promote hockey in a better way,'' he said while talking to mediapersons here today.

Sardana's grouse is that his top players Ajmer Singh, Gurbaj Singh and Gurwinder Singh Chandi were not released for the Hockey Nationals which concluded here yesterday.

Strongly criticising the IHF chief, Sardana pointed out that the release of Vikram Pillai, Arjun Halappa and Adrian D'Souza of IA was a clear case of favouritism. This was done to favour IA as the Indian assistant coach Harendra Singh also belongs to IA, he alleged.

''It is totally unjustified and the IHF chief adopted a double standard,'' Sardana added showing his displeasure at the IHF chief.

Throwing light on the entire issue, Sardana said that on learning of the release of the Indian Airlines players for the Jalandhar Nationals, he spoke to Mr Gill and urged him that Air India players should have also been given permission to play at Jalandhar.''I was told by Mr Gill that those who play in Jalandhar will not be taken back,'' he claimed while pointing out that two Indian Airlines players, Arjun Halappa and Adrian D'Souza had been included among the 23 probables invited to the Rourkela camp for coming Asian Games in Doha in December.

The camp under chief coach V Baskaran began as scheduled from today.

MORE UNI XC-HS PDS BD2010