NEW DELHI: India has time till October 9 to elect a new executive board (EB) of the Hockey India (HI) and avoid an international ban by the sport's global governing body. The adherence to the election timeline will also ensure that India keeps the hosting rights of the men's hockey World Cup, scheduled in Odisha's Bhubaneswar and Rourkela from January 13-29, 2023.
The development came on a day when a delegation from the international hockey federation (FIH) held talks with the court-appointed committee of administrators (CoA) here to check the progress made in terms of the drafting of new constitution of India's hockey governing body and renew the world body's request to have elections held as soon as possible, in order not to jeopardise the conduct of the World Cup.
During the meeting, it was also agreed that the HI will have the final draft of its constitution delivered to the FIH within the next 10 days. The meeting was attended by FIH's acting president Seif Ahmed, CEO Thierry Weil and CoA members - former Judge of the Supreme Court Anil R Dave, former chief election commissioner of India S Y Quraishi and Olympian Zafar Iqbal.
On Tuesday, the delegation met sports secretary Sujata Chaturvedi. "The two major points put forward by the FIH were addressed by the CoA. The first draft of the modified constitution of Hockey India, as directed by honourable Delhi High Court, has been submitted today to FIH and the CoA. Hockey India will have a final draft delivered within the next 10 days. Additionally, the process of elections for Hockey India was mutually decided to be completed by October 9, 2022," the FIH & CoA said in a joint statement.
As reported by TOI on Wednesday, the visiting FIH delegation was strictly against the 20-week timeline suggested by the CoA members to hold elections as per the new constitution. This was conveyed to the sports ministry and CoA by the FIH officials during their meetings with the m. The international body's tough stance prompted the CoA to agree to the October 9 deadline for elections.
Speaking in context of the Delhi HC's order with respect to HI, which had ruled the appointments of Narinder Batra as 'life member' and Australian Elena Norman as 'CEO' unconstitutional and illegitimate under the national sports code, FIH acting president said, "We don't consider the court as a third party and respect the judiciary. We believe that the order of a court is not an interference."
