Hockey Olympians demand IHF to be dissolved and IOA to take over

New Delhi, Dec 20 (UNI) Apalled at the plummeting performance of the Indian team under the Indian Hockey Federation, a large number of former Olympians today demanded immediate dissolution of the IHF and felt Indian Olympic Association (IOA) should take over the game.

Dismayed at the running of the game after the Indian team returned from the Doha Asian Games finishing a poor fifth -- their worst show in the history of the Games -- hockey stars of the yesteryears Haripal Kaushik, Cdr Nandi Singh, Raghubir Lal, Ashok Kumar, Zaffar Iqbal, Pargat Singh, Col Balbir Singh, SS Grewal and host of local players took out a procession today carrying ''Save Hockey'' placards here.

The former players later submitted a memorandum to the Sports Ministry, seeking intervention to dissolve IHF and either let IOA took over or replace it with an ad-hoc body.

This was not an unprecedented demand, some of the players said, citing the example in the 1970s when the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had intervened as IHF was dissolved and IOA had taken over.

Talking to UNI, Ashok Kumar said, ''Nothing is going right in the IHF and it's high time the body is dissolved. We demand a fairer system where selection would be more transparent. We just can't let hockey die a pathetic death.'' UNI AY PDS BD1923