Pune:
Chak de India may fall a bit flat at the hockey World Cup next month if the latest crisis in the national game is not resolved: the players are boycotting the preparatory camp in Pune demanding that they be paid their dues first.
The World Cup is scheduled to be held in New Delhi from February 28 to March 13. But the players say they will stay away from practice indefinitely since Hockey India, the interim body that governs the game in the country, has failed to respond to two of their letters asking the authorities to make payments.
"We have decided to boycott the camp indefinitely till we are paid our money. We took such a decision in a meeting of players last night", the Captain, Rajpal Singh said.
The senior players had written to Hockey India president A K Mattoo demanding that the money be paid within seven days. The letter had no mention about the pullout from the camp, but sources said the players had actually made up their mind to withdraw from the camp if the payment was not made in a week's time.
"Earlier we used to be paid after every tournament but it is not the case now. We had reminded the HI officials a few times, but nothing has been done. We will now report to the camp only after we are paid", Rajpal said.
So what kind of money are we talking about? Consider this. The daily allowance money, a government allowance, given to members of the national team depends on the country they are travelling to. When the team travelled to Malaysia for the Azlan Shah Cup, each player got a princely sum of $14 of Rs 640 per day. India brought home the cup.
Last month, India won bronze medal in the tournament, held in Salta, Argentina. But unlike the previous occasions when they were paid in advance, this time they were left waiting even after the conclusion of the tournament.
"We would like to be paid our money for Champions Challenge in Argentina. In the previous three years we were paid Rs. 25,000 each for every tournaments before we left India. We would like to be paid this time too and as for the future tournaments, please make arrangements to pay well in advance," the players had said in the letter.
Rajpal said the players were forced to take such a step because Hockey India "did not care for them".
"Hockey India does not care for the players, it is very sad. The sponsors are paying the money, but the players don't get anything," he said.
Apart from their dues, the players are also demanding an increase in their pay packages and some incentives.
Hockey India (HI) is, however, confident of sorting out the issue and has called some of the senior players for a meeting in New Delhi on Saturday.
Six of the senior players --captain Rajpal Singh, Sardara Singh, Prabhjot Singh, Sandeep Singh, Tushar Khandekar and Arjun Halappa --will be in Delhi on Saturday for a promotional shoot and are expected to meet the HI officials to sort out the payment issue.
"I had received their letter two days back. I have mailed my response to them yesterday. I have called them for a meeting when the players come to Delhi tomorrow", HI President A K Mattoo said.
"I will talk to them and look into the matter to understand what exactly their grievances are. I am confident that we will sort out the problem soon," he said.
Although the players claimed that they had given HI time till January 8 to resolve the issue, Mattoo said no such deadline was given to them.
"There was no mention of the deadline in the letter. Above all, they are the national hockey players. They should not have threatened us. They can't keep the dagger on my head to make me work. But we are confident about working out a solution when we talk to them", Mattoo said.
(With PTI inputs)