NEW DELHI: For the sporting world, India’s on-field arch-rival has always been Pakistan. But that preposition might change in hockey. And quite realistically, India’s men and women teams would look at Belgium as their main adversary and ‘the team to beat’ in future bilateral series and tournaments.
It’s not that the Indian hockey fans have developed a competitive liking for the reigning men’s Olympic champions. But the off-field bickering between the officials of both hockey-playing nations have ensured that whenever the two sides meet on the blue artificial turf, there mustn’t be any dearth of hostility and bitterness among players on each side.
After the hockey’s European bloc, led by the Belgium federation, slammed the sport’s global governing body (FIH) and its voting system over the choice of winners for this edition’s FIH annual awards wherein India claimed all the top honours across different categories on October 6, it was the turn of Hockey India (HI) on Wednesday to return the favour with allegations of “racial discrimination” and “mental intimidation”. Narinder Dhruv Batra is the president of the FIH and had previously served in the capacity of HI’s secretary general and president. Batra is also the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) chief.
Led by its president Gyanendro Ningombam, HI shot off a strongly-worded, two-page letter to the FIH, demanding a public apology or thorough probe into the charges levelled by the Belgium federation, which it termed as “highly offensive” against the Indian athletes and coaches. “The objections on behalf of the Belgium federation for the 2021 winners need to be carefully examined by the FIH Governance Panel for what is considered by myself as a case of discrimination/racial discrimination, and how humiliating, mentally traumatic and insulting it is to the Indian athletes and coaches,” wrote Ningombam to FIH CEO Thierry Weil.
“lt’s shameful in contrast that the European Hockey Federation is sitting quiet and not taking responsibility for the lack of activation and seriousness in voting by their member associations while also allowing their athletes and member associations undermine the results and showing disrespect to the winners. ls it fair that the hard work and efforts of these athletes are being scrutinised and they are being put through such harassment and mental intimidation because they and their national association made full commitment to market and promote themselves?” Ningombam added.
The love lost between the hockey nations of India and Belgium hasn’t happened suddenly and certainly not because of the FIH awards controversy. To jog the memories of readers, it had started during the time when the FIH elections were announced. Belgium hockey’s president Marc Coudron, backed by the European nations, had challenged incumbent Batra for the top post in a bitterly-fought election. And, Batra had managed to survive by the narrowest of margins, winning by just two votes (63-61) of the 124 votes polled. Later, India’s men’s team was defeated by the eventual winner Belgium in the semifinals of the Tokyo Olympics 2020.
Continuing his tirade against Belgium, Ningombam further made his displeasure clear when he told the FIH and its CEO Weil in no uncertain terms that “the public statements of displeasure at the announcement of the Indian winners is highly disrespectful and not in the spirit of sportsmanship and the sport of hockey”.
“The Indian athletes and coaches were nominated by a panel of their peers and are just as deserving of the awards as any of the other nominees. The criteria for the selection of the winners of the awards were clearly shared with all national associations, including Hockey India, along with the nominees. HI made great efforts to ensure good participation across all categories from our country and now feel publicly penalised for the full-hearted participation and support of the Indian nominees. It is disappointing that the Belgium Federation would prefer to question the voting system and the legitimacy of the Indian winners than actually take responsibility for not encouraging more voting and supporting their athletes in the first place," Ningombam stated.
"There is no doubt that any of the nominees would have been suitable winners however the voting system has been clear from the start and those that had put in the effort to vote have made their preferences clear. The core of the matter is that these national associations need to first introspect to see their actual level of participation and interest right from the start instead of now questioning the system once results are announced not in their favour. It has already been stated by FIH that the Asian continent facilitated by the Asian Hockey Federation was very active in ensuring their “National Associations” vote counted. The Indian athletes have legitimately won the polls, in most cases across all three categories, yet the shine of winning has been totally undermined by such negative comments by fellow athletes and national associations,” the HI chief added.
Six Indian players and the head coaches of both the men's and women's teams topped the FIH awards after garnering the maximum votes. From the European bloc, 19 of the 42-member associations cast their votes, while the Asian participation was 29 out of 33.
