Former Indian hockey captain speaks out in support of suspended midfielder Gurbaj Singh

Finally someone spoke up for Gurbaj

Former national captain and president of Hockey Punjab Pargat Singh criticized Hockey India for its nine-month ban of midfielder Gurbaj Singh, saying that it was too harsh, according to The Tribune. Throwing his weight behind Gurbaj, he said,” In the past, when HI had banned players, like Sardar Singh and Sandeep Singh, it had lifted the ban within no time. Then what has stopped them from lifting it this time.” He seem to imply that the ban had ulterior motives.

According to Pargat, Gurbaj’s ban would not only prove disastrous for his career, but also impede the Indian team’s chances of success in the 2016 Rio Olympics. The two-time Olympian pointed a finger at Hockey India President Narinder Batra for mismanagement of affairs, saying,”There has been a complete mismanagement of affairs in HI. It has changed six coaches in just five years.”

That wasn’t the only accusation made by Pargat. He alleged that Hockey India has been consistently denying Hockey Punjab’s request to host a six-nation tournament in the state. Every time they (Hockey Punjab) appraoched Hockey India with the request, they have been turned down, said the hockey player-turned-politician.

Narinder Batra made no response to queries on the Gurbaj conundrum, with the issue being decided in the High Court. The industrialist said that he’d answer all questions on the matter during the next hearing in the high court. Batra in turn, accused Pargat of politicizing the issue, saying, “Since the matter is in the court, he should not interfere in it.”

Batra countered Pargat’s claim that Hockey India was denying Hockey Punjab permission to conduct the tournament by saying that despite approving their request twice, the latter had not been able to secure funds from the State Government. The President of HI said, “Despite granting the tournament twice to Punjab, Hockey Punjab could not hold it due to a paucity of funds. I had to cancel the tournaments sanctioned to Punjab and instead had to allocate these to other states.”

Batra also added that Hockey India had not released grants to Hockey Punjab for the past three years because of the latter’s failure to submit its balance sheets. Pargat repudiated the statement by saying that the state organization had not approached the former for any grant in the last three years.

In response to Batra’s statement about the approval of the request, Pargat accused Batra of lying outright and demanded that Hockey India produce documents proving the so-called approval.