In Haryana, selector, coach, captain rolled into one

CHANDIGARH: Call it a problem of plenty, arbitrary selection, petty politics or favouritism. A women hockey player may be good enough to play for India or might have attended umpteen conditioning camps with the best in India but if she has to represent Haryana in National Games, she has to get over all the above hurdles to make it to the playing XI.

Pritam Siwach

Gaurav Kanthwal

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 29

Call it a problem of plenty, arbitrary selection, petty politics or favouritism. A women hockey player may be good enough to play for India or might have attended umpteen conditioning camps with the best in India but if she has to represent Haryana in National Games, she has to get over all the above hurdles to make it to the playing XI.

Jasjeet Kaur, Joydeep, Mandeep and Navneet have played for India. Babita, Manjeet, Deepti and Shilpa have won gold medals in junior Nationals and attended several India camps but they do not qualify to represent the state in the upcoming National Games.

The 18-member squad for Haryana has 13 players from Sonepat itself, all trained by Pritam Siwach. Forty-year-old Siwach, who started as a selector and then became a coach, in all likelihood, will be captaining the side. Her husband, Kuldeep Siwach, will take over as the coach of the team.

The state government gives Rs 3 lakh (gold), Rs 2 lakh (silver) and Rs 1 lakh (bronze) to the medal-winning athletes in the National Games.

The selection trials were conducted in Gurgaon on January 4. Intriguingly, the team was announced on January 28 and the team left for Thiruvananthpuram on the same day. A day later, the two traditional centres of hockey in Haryana, Shahbad and Hisar, are left ruing being sidelined for the selection.

Hisar-based coach Azad Malik said, “There is no doubt that the team has been selected arbitrarily. We were asked to send only five names. None of the five was selected. Even the players who have represented India have not been selected.”

Shahabad coach Baldev Singh said, “How come 13 players from Sonepat have been selected in the same year. It’s strange.”

Hockey Haryana general secretary Sunil Malik accused Baldev of habitually playing politics over team selections. “It is his habit of cribbing every time his say is ignored. The team has been selected purely on merit.”

It does not help when the state government and the sports department have been increasing cash rewards as populist measures but failing to monitor sports associations’ activities.

The three-member committee constituted by IOA to sponsor participation of Haryana teams under the banner of IOA has also drawn flak for being a mute spectator and let the arbitrary selections happen. Malik said, “There is no point in having new sports policies when you don’t improve the implementation process. Sports Minister Anil Vij should have intervened.”