NEW DELHI Attempts to form a new national field hockey organisation in India was opposed Thursday by state officials, who termed the move illegal.
The Indian Olympic Association announced the formation of a unified body — Hockey India —on Wednesday after the International Hockey Federation threatened to take the World Cup away from New Delhi if the country did not have a single national association governing both the mens and womens game.
The IOA said it had given provisional affiliation to Hockey India, while disaffiliating the two associations separately running mens and womens hockey.
J.B. Roy, president of the Bengal Hockey Association, a state unit affiliated to the mens Indian Hockey Federation (IHF), said the IOAs act was 'illegal' and did not have the backing of existing bodies.
'How can the IOA unilaterally decide to form a body without any representation from the stake holders?' Roy said.
He said only the mens and womens national associations had the right to form a unified body, not an outside agency, even if it happened to be the national Olympic committee.
'The new association is completely unconstitutional. We have already sent a legal representation to the countrys Sports Minister,' Roy said.
The IOA has been governing mens field hockey for one year through an administrative panel, after suspending the IHF in the wake of bribery accusations against a top official.
Roy had led 28 state units of the IHF in asking the IOA to hold elections for restoring the administration to hockey officials.
The IHFs state associations are planning a meeting in New Delhi next week to voice their opposition to Hockey India.
Their protest was supported by the Indian Womens Hockey Association, whose secretary Amrit Bose said she was against 'the IOA drafting a new constitution without involving state associations.'
The IOA president Suresh Kalmadi said Wednesday that Bose was a member of the seven-member committee appointed to restructure field hockey associations and unify them into one organisation.
Bose insisted that 'state associations should be involved.'—AP
