Indian hockey cannot stop being in news, usually for bad ones instead of good ones. Two incidents taken place in last last week has disgraced Indian hockey. Bhopal nationals saw Tamil Nadu skipper and former Indian hockey player Adam Sinclair being banned from the next tournament when he along with his team attacked the officials and groundsman over a minor issue in 3-2 win over Chandigarh.
The match officials asked both the teams to exchange their dugouts, but TN players refused to do so. This led to a heated exchange between players and the officials. This conversation turned ugly when TN team players attacked the officials.
This incident delayed the match by 30 mins and tournament director Peter Menzes banned captain Adam Sinclair for the next edition of the tournament, holding him responsible for the violence.
In another incident, former Indian hockey players Sunil Ekka attacked the umpire in the ongoing All-India MCC-Murugappa Gold Cup. Sunil Ekka playing for the Army team attacked umpire R S Suryaprakash on the head with his hockey stick. The umpire was seriously injured in this incident.
This took place when a player of Army XI was shown a green card by umpire R S Suryaprakash(Suryaprakash was judged the best umpire in 1993 nationals).
Defending hes team-mate Sunil got into an argument with the umpire and hit him with the hockey stick. Prakash had to be taken to hospital immediately to treat his head injury.
“I’ve been officiating at the national level for the last 21 years and have never come across such behavior,” said Prakash. “Sunil has played for India and represents the Army but he obviously lacks discipline.”
Assaulting an official is a Level-2 offence according to the International Hockey Federation’s code of conduct. “Sunil Ekka has been banned from the rest of the tournament. Once we get the report from the match officials, we will take a final decision,” said tournament director Mohammad Muneer.
“I am also going to send my report to Hockey India. As this is an all-India tournament, we can’t ban him for six months, but HI has the right to impose the maximum (six-month) ban on him,” Muneer said.
These incidents are tarnishing the image of Indian hockey. If the players fight with the people who are officiating the game, it is a serious offense and they players should not be allowed to play again. The officials should be respected and if andy problems are there, it should be complained to the tournament director after the game. Earlier also star player Gagan Ajit Singh had also been banned when he attacked PC expert Sandeep Singh’s brother Bikramjit Singh in a tournament.
The media covers these stories better than the European tour. Wow!
this is just the kind of media that Hockey needs to avoid. for whatever reason it may be the player cannot resolve the issue by physically or verbally attacking officials. There are ways and means withen the rules that allows or this… Team coaches and managers are there for that too….Stringent action is a must to avoid this in the future.