By IANS
Chandigarh : Faced with the problem of growing incidence of on-field violence in various sporting events, the Chandigarh sports department Monday announced strict rules for games held in the city.
The new rules will make it mandatory for sports associations and organisers of sporting events to ensure that the games are held in proper decorum and no rowdiness or on-field violence by players is allowed.
New clauses included by the department to allow the city's sporting facilities to be used clearly spell out that the organisers will have to contain unruly and disgraceful sporting behaviour by players and sports officials during games.
During the Premier Hockey League (PHL) final match in March at the Sector 42 hockey stadium, international hockey players, including some of the Indian hockey team, argued and chased an umpire, Satinder Sharma, and even got physical with him. This is said to be the reason behind the new rules being framed.
Chandigarh sports director Inderjit Singh Sandhu said: "The basic objective is that the organisers must take responsibility of keeping the players or teams under their total control to avert any ugly incident."
Under the new rules, in case of repeated occurrence of violence, the organisers would be barred for five years from holding any tournament in the city. And in case on-field violence continues in a particular game or tournament, the sports authorities here will suspend that game or tournament.
During the PHL, violence erupted in a match being played between Sher-e-Jalandhar and Orissa Steelers – both teams comprising several Indian hockey team players. Nearly half a dozen Sher-e-Jalandhar players attacked the umpire after he gave a decision against them.
The umpire then refused to take the field. The unsavoury incident was shown live on a sports channel.
The Indian Hockey Federation, whose chief K.P.S. Gill was watching the match when the incident happened, slapped a penalty of 50 percent match fee (Rs.1.5 million) on the Sher-e-Jalandhar team.
Later, three international players, Kamaldeep Singh, Maninder Singh and Tejbir Singh – all from Sher-e-Jalandhar – were suspended from national and international hockey matches for three years. They were also banned for life from the PHL tournament held every year.