Hockey India offers no comment on India's reported pull out of Hockey Pro League
Hockey India has offered no comment on reports that that India are set to pull out from the Hockey Pro League.
However, a source close to Hockey India stated that HI’s stance on the tournament remains the same as at the time of the tournament. The source said, "India have always been in favour of the league and even our coaches think it is one of the best things to happen to the sport in recent times. A Pro League in 2019 is the ideal preparation for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo."
International hockey has been slated to supposedly unfold a new chapter with the start of the Hockey Pro League. However, FIH’ s master plan of incorporating nine of world’s best hockey team in both the men’s as well as the women’s game was rumoured to have dealt a big blow with an international publication stating that India were withdrawing from the event.
Slated to kick off in January 2019, the Hockey Pro League was meant to pit the best countries in the hockey world against each other. However, even before a ball was hit, the tournament seems to have taken a big hit.
The men's teams that were earlier confirmed were Argentina, Australia, Belgium, England/Great Britain, Germany, India, Netherlands, New Zealand and Pakistan (who were supposed to play their home games in Scotland.)
Meanwhile, the women's event was to be contested amongst Argentina, Australia, China, England/Great Britain, Germany, India, Netherlands, New Zealand and USA.
The report had claimed that the FIH had ceded to a number of demands from Hockey India at the eleventh hour, leading up to the deadline (June 30th) for signing the participation agreement. The report further claimed that the “FIH are believed to have been stunned to receive an official complaint from Hockey India” on the 6th of June.
The complaint reportedly had claims of match-fixing during the recently concluded Hockey World League Semi-Final in London. The report claimed that Hockey India had claimed an intentional disruption after Sardar Singh was brought in for questioning for an incident.
The report further claims that this was rather a smokescreen to dissuade the attention from their poor showing on the field which saw them finish sixth despite being the third-highest ranked team in the tournament.
Unnecessary off-field controversies but not regarding Pro Hockey League
Indian hockey had been shrouded by needless off-field controversies in recent times. The sequence of events began when Indian wore black armbands in their game against Pakistan on the 18th of June protesting the killing of their soldiers at the border they share with Pakistan.
It was later learnt that official permission for doing the same was not taken from the FIH, or the tournament organisers. The country was further shamed when Narinder Batra, the current FIH chief and ex-Hockey India head posted some objectionable posts on social media, from which the FIH had to distance themselves and saw Batra apologise for the same.