BHA managing committee says hockey won't suffer despite rigging of elections
BHA managing committee says hockey won't suffer despite rigging of elections
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Au00a0dark and ugly side of sports administration was revealed yesterday when retired civil court judge LH Patil concluded that the Bombay Hockey Association's elections held in June were rigged.
But thankfully there is a brighter side to the story too.
With the judge having vindicated the ruling faction's claims against Hon Secretary Kehar Singh, the managing committee can finally concentrate on getting on with the promotion of the sport.
"We are glad that the truth is finally out so that we can now leave all this behind and focus on doing our best to promote the national game," a relieved Olympian and BHA managing committee member Joaquim Carvalho told MiD DAY last night.
Singh however remained his unshakeable self claiming that nothing concrete had been proved yesterday.
"Important decisions will be taken when the committee meets on August 26. Let's see what they do," he said.
Carvalho however stressed that even if the "obviously disgruntled" secretary wanted to, he would not be able to the hinder the smooth functioning of the association.
"The secretary is not the all-important member of the association. We are a 17-member committee and have sub-grouped ourselves further into a coaching and planning committee, selection committee, marketing committee, media committee, etc to ensure that our plans are not hindered in any way despite political issues.
These problems will not bog us down.
"We will ensure that the many tournaments we have planned like the European style Minky hockey tourney for kids U-12, an U-21 Mumbai vs Karnatakau00a0 home and away series, etc will go on as per schedule."
Hopefully, the attention will now shift to the astro turf.
BHA's big fix
Retired civil court judge LH Patil yesterday confirmed the BHA's new managing committee's doubts that the elections held in June were rigged. "There was clear evidence of the ballot box being tampered with," Patil said after inspecting the BHA premises in Churchgate.
The elections in June saw theu00a0 current ruling panel replace the previous one entirely with the exception of Commander Kehar Singh, who retained the secretary's post. Gurbux Singh, who was beaten by Kehar to the secretary's position then allegedu00a0 rigging after as many as 116 votes were declared invalid.
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