The group of players including Olympians Gurbax Singh Grewal, Merwyn Fernandis, Joaquim Carvalho, Gavin Ferreira, internationals Ramesh Pillay, Raju Bagade, Neena Rane and Sukhbir Singh filed their nominations on Saturday.
After being elected unopposed in the last term, the incumbent set-up of the Mumbai Hockey Association (MHA) will have to fight to hold on to their posts after a group of former international players filed their nominations for the August 12 elections.
The group of players including Olympians Gurbax Singh Grewal, Merwyn Fernandis, Joaquim Carvalho, Gavin Ferreira, internationals Ramesh Pillay, Raju Bagade, Neena Rane and Sukhbir Singh filed their nominations on Saturday. While Gurbax Singh will take on Mangha Singh Bakshi for the president's post, Carvalho will take on Ram Singh Rathor for the secretary's post. Fernandis will fight for one of the two vice-presidents' spot. The group will field candidates for all 14 posts of the managing committee.
Even with 10 days to go for the elections, there was controversy over the filing of nominations on its last day on Sunday. While MHA rules state that the nominations should be made in person, there were allegations that the association allowed a current managing committee member – a former player himself – to file his nomination in his absence.
"Just to show that they have a hockey player in their group, they're putting names without them having physically filed their nominations," Carvalho said. "On the other hand, they did not accept former Mumbai player Hamim Kazmi's nomination because he couldn't make it on Saturday due to an accident. And, when he turned up on Sunday, they said he was late. This is unfair," Carvalho added.
Carvalho said they have a two-point agenda for the development on Mumbai hockey. "First, we want to build a clubhouse at the MHA, which will have facilities like gymnasium and swimming pool. Second, we want to develop a full-fledged residential academy, where good players from Mumbai and across the state will be trained. The profits from the clubhouse will go into this," he said.
Rathor, on this part, said the same people didn't do anything when they were in power. "There are Olympians on both sides. But what did these people do when they got a chance before us? We are ready for the fight," he said.
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