Indian women’s failure to qualify for Olympics seems to be fitting considering the things that are happening in Indian hockey lately.
Indian women’s failure to qualify for Olympics seems to be fitting considering the
things that are happening in Indian hockey lately, writes Sanjib Guha
Indian hockey had plummeted to a new nadir with their women following their male counterparts by alienating themselves too from the Olympic movement.
The hue and cry is less after the eves’ failed to earn a Beijing ticket as if it was on the expected lines. Given the poor standard of the game for quite a few years, it was only the inevitable that was waiting in the wings — Jothikumaran issue.
Hockey has fetched India all the eight gold medals it won in the Olympics. Among eight, six came on the trot between 1928 and 1956. But now India has no representation in the Olympics (hockey). For that, the Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) is to be blamed for not doing enough for the upliftment.
Though corruption was on the surface, the can of worms came out when the general secretary of the Indian hockey’s governing body, K Jothikumaran, was caught accepting bribe for including a player in the national squad. The final nail in the coffin was planted with this issue which also prompted an entire IHF whitewash by dethroning even its president KPS Gill.
The Jothikumaran issue that rocked the Indian sports circuit is a first of its kind. As Olympian Gurbux Singh, who didn’t offer a comment, though made it clear that the incident was new to him.
“In my tenure with the Indian hockey, I have never seen this sort of incidents…,” Gurbux told the DNA from Kolkata. The game which took a nosedive a few years back, has plunged deeper in the Gill-Jothikumaran regime. But the IHF being an autonomous body, the government’s hands are tied.
The striking point is even after so much controversy and sport minister MS Gill’s insistence, the IHF chief looks unperturbed by the change in situation. “I will not resign. Why should I resign? I haven’t done anything,” was Gill’s reaction when asked whether he would resign following sports minister’s suggestion.
Embezzlement of funds is nothing new in Indian sport but the bribery incident revealed the sorry state of the affairs in Indian sport, especially hockey. A source within IHF feels that it has happened because of rivalry between Gill and Jothikumaran.
“Factionalism has led in IHF and so are the consequences…” the source says.
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