Amid the escalating rifts within Hockey India (HI), a group of former players has thrown its weight behind HI president Dilip Tirkey and called for urgent reform in the running of the federation.
While the aforementioned trio couldn’t be in attendance, Olympians Vineet Kumar and Romeo James, who were part of the Indian team at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, were among those who made their voices heard. The tussles in the governing body came into prominence on September 12 when Director General Cdr. Pramod Batlaw, a member of the silver-winning team at the 1978 Asian Games, said it was paramount for HI to be cleaned up.
R.K. Srivastava was stripped of all his powers and asked to explain repeated instances of non-compliance with Tirkey’s directives. Srivastava had travelled to the recent World Cup in the Netherlands and Belgium despite Tirkey directing him not to do so. Former India women’s team captain Asunta Lakra, who had accused Bhola Nath of intimidating her with consequences after she raised objections to the alleged harassment of young girls in Jharkhand, was also part of the protest. “There are people in HI who don’t know anything about the sport.
They want to send Tirkey out and take all the powers,” he told The Hindu .