By IANS,
New Delhi: Former India captain Pargat Singh Saturday filed his nomination for the post of Hockey India (HI) president and appeared confident of victory.
Pargat will contest against HI interim president Vidya Stokes.
Hours after filing his papers before returning officer R.C. Chopra on the last day of nominations for the July 28 elections, Pargat launched another scathing attack on Indian Olympic Association (IOA) president Suresh Kalmadi, also the chief of Commonwealth Games organising committee, saying that he wants to run Indian hockey with a “remote control”.
Pargat said there is too much of confusion in the administration of the game at present and asked the 56-member house to vote with “conscience”, keeping in mind the betterment of the national sport.
“There is so much of mismanagement in hockey. We have to stop the situation from getting worse. For the last couple of months, hockey is not being played on ground, but it is played in courts and in closed rooms.
“It is already in a bad state and we cannot allow things to slip further, otherwise it will spell doom of Indian hockey. Whatever I am today is because of hockey and I want to give back something to the sport. We cannot see hockey die,” Pargat told reporters.
“I have the mandate and I am confident of winning the elections. I request all the 56 members, including Vidya Stokes, who has nominated herself for president’s post, to vote for me. I do not need to spell my credentials for everyone.”
“People like Kalmadi wants to run hockey through a remote control and I fail to understand they think that people cannot see through such designs.”
Asked whether anyone else from his camp had filed for any of the other 17 posts, Pargat said it would be premature for him to reveal anything as there are still some legal issues involved.
“I can only say that there are like minded people who have come together to save Indian hockey,” Pargat said in the presence of Hockey Karnataka secretary K. Krishnamurthy, who has filed his nomination for the post of secretary general and treasurer.
Pargat, who reportedly has the blessings of J.B. Roy, the president of Bengal Hockey and brother of Sahara supremo Subrata Roy, said sportspersons should be given a chance to run the administration.
“See what is happening in hockey. Leave alone proper coaching, we do not even have an international calendar. There are so many things that are kept in mind while you prepare an international calendar, like the peak form of players, the choice of tournaments etc. For that we have to talk to the coaches, trainers and then chart out a calendar. Do we have such people in HI.”
Pargat also blasted HI for saying that players who participated in the senior national championships conducted by resurrected Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) will be penalised.
“How can you even think of banning the players. They are in such a dilemma about the current state of things. Everyday I get calls from the players as to whether to play in a particular tournament or not. And there are a handful of players. Who will play hockey, if you ban them? We need to understand the situation of the players.”
Pargat said his priority, if elected, would be to frame a systematic set-up to run hockey at the national level and streamline the domestic circuit.
“There are so many things that we have to do to get back India’s glorious past in hockey. The coaching and umpiring system needs to be upgraded,” he said.
Hockey Arunachal’s Gunjum Haider, who was also present, have also filed his nomination for the posts of secretary and treasurer.
Krishnamurthy’s candidature, however is still in doubt as HI has moved the court against Karnataka High Court’s interim order of allowing Krishnamurthy to represent Hockey Karnataka in the elections.
Besides the posts of president and secretary general, elections will be held for four joint secretary (two male, two female), four vice president (two male, two female), one senior vice president, treasurer, and five executive members.
As per the HI constitution, there should be forty percent representative of either gender in the new 17-member executive committee.