With Asian Games one week away, Indian hockey once more trapped in a controversy

Boria Majumdar

Seven days left for the Asian Games and the Indian hockey teams, men and women, are in Japan getting ready for a hugely important assignment. They need to win gold to ensure direct qualification for LA28, and unless that happens, Olympic preparations will get impacted. While the women have momentum, the men are searching for it post a failed World Cup campaign.

To ensure the Games go to plan, the players need to be at their best, both physically and mentally. And that’s where the role of Hockey India officials come in. As administrators, they have a responsibility towards the players and the sport. The priority is to win gold and qualify. To do so, they need to ensure their egos don’t take precedence and things don’t go out of control.

Sadly for Indian hockey, that’s exactly what is happening at the moment. The President sends a suspension notice to the Director General asking him to step down. The notice is sent by an advocate who isn’t someone empanelled by Hockey India. And yet he is acting on behalf of the President. In response, the Secretary General sends a stinging response calling the notice illegal and saying the body will not even take cognisance of it. Both letters are in the public domain within minutes and the sport is in the throes of yet another controversy.

With elections approaching, it is natural things will get complicated. Barbs will be thrown at each other and a lot will happen. But then all of it should happen post the Asian Games. Nothing is more important and both Dilip Tirkey and Bholanath Singh should recognise that. Neither Tirkey nor Bholanath can derail the campaign, and by doing what they did last night, they run the risk of costing India two gold medals.

Will the players not get impacted by these shenanigans? Will they not check what’s going on and get drawn in? Does hockey need yet another controversy with just a week left? As President and Secretary, will Tirkey and Bholanath show some restraint and stop washing dirty linen in public?

I am not interested in the right or wrong here. I am not going to take sides either. I don’t know whether Tirkey is right. Nor do I care. As supporters of Indian hockey, all we should care for is how India fare at the Asian Games. Frankly, who heads Hockey India or who wins the election shouldn’t bother us. Tirkey and Bholanath aren’t relevant after a point. The sport is and for some reason that’s what is being sacrificed at the altar of egos.

The jersey controversy ahead of the World Cup was a national embarrassment. Just when it seemed the sport had moved past it, we have this new battle of egos brewing. From what we hear, executive board members have now jumped into it and Commander Srivastava has majority support. Where does that leave Tirkey? For a legend of Indian hockey, how is it looking? Is it helping the sport and India’s campaign? Clearly there is a need for restraint and that’s what is missing.

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