Bhubaneswar: Congress General Secretary and Gandhi scion Rahul Gandhi on Monday joined hockey fans across the country in slamming the administrators for the pitiable state of affairs of the national sport.
Asked to react to the Indian hockey team’s unprecedented failure to make the cut for the Beijing Olympics, Rahul said the problem lay in the administrators. “The selection of players was unfair and good people often didn’t get a chance to play for the team,” he alleged.
He also pointed out that while cricket has become a money spinner in the country, the national sport doesn’t have that kind of financial support to encourage young players to take up the game seriously.
Rahul had earlier accused politicians of misusing the names of hockey associations and alleged that they were playing mischief in the name of hockey.
On Saturday, Rahul Gandhi had publicly declared his love for hockey during an interaction with a group of tribal players in Rourkela and had even promised to promote the game.
“I have something in mind for the development of hockey and I will do something concrete. You will come to know about it later,” he had said.
The Congress General Secretary also had lunch with the tribal players, broke his security cordon to mingle with the boys and girls and enquired about the problems being faced by the players.
When some players told him that there were 101 inmates, including 48 girls, Rahul sought to know whose performance was better. “Boys are good, but girls are still better,” the players said.
The Congress MP was impressed to know that so far 43 products of the hostel, set up in 1985, had represented the country in international tournaments.
When Rahul said it was Punjab which once dominated the game, players pointed out that there were more players from Orissa in the national team now.
Comments
0 comment