Olympians question motive of FIH

Six Olympians have accused the International Hockey Federation of taking away all the profits generated at the World Cup in Delhi and written a letter to the government to stop the world body from repeating the act during the Champions Trophy allotted to India this year.

In a letter to Sindhusree Khullar, secretary in the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, the former players have charged that by continuing to support Hockey India and controlling the affiliation, FIH has shown disrespect to the Indian Government which has recognised only the age-old Indian Hockey Federation (IHF).

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

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

"The Government has also informed the FIH that Hockey India, a private body as stated by themselves in court and publicly and which was sponsored/supported and recognised by the IOA, was de-recognised following its non-compliance and inability to fulfil the norms set by the Government to be able to qualify as a national sports federation."