Gill laments lack of
support for hockey
Hockey is nobody's child. Leave aside
support, the team cannot even hope for congratulatory messages for
their string of victories.
''The Indian team won the Prime Minister's Cup in Dhaka, defeating
Pakistan in the final, the under-16 and under-18 Asia Cups and the Asian
schools championship, but we got no congratulatory messages,''
Indian Hockey Federation president K P S Gill said.
''The triumph in the Prime Minister's Cup was no less than the
French Open win of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi but no one cared
to even congratulate us," he said at a function to felicitate the Indian team which won the under-18 Asia Cup on Sunday.
''We are on the way up but there is no support forthcoming from
any quarters for the national game,'' Gill said.
He was critical of the Indian corporate sector's failure to
support sports, but said the lack of support would not come in the way of building a
strong team for the future.
"Money is not the sole
motivator. Good times are ahead for hockey. After decades we have again
started producing players,'' Gill said.
He added: 'We are now getting talent from all parts of India. For the
first time we have a player from Kashmir in the junior team and he
has shown tremendous promise. Three of our players - Jugraj Singh,
Suraj Khantha and Rajpal Singh -- made it to the Asia XI team.''
Gill informed that some more players could have made it to the Asia XI but the Asian
Hockey Federation wanted representation of all major hockey-playing
nations of Asia.