God knows my conscience is clear: Jothikumaran

K Jothikumaran Remember the name Recall the face at every erstwhile Indian Hockey Federation IHF press conference And is he here at the Asian Champions Trophy ACT No The exsecretary general of the erstwhile IHF is at Anna Nagar where he sits down for a chat recalling the highs and lows of a near 15year administrative careerHis stint as the man overseeing the daytoday affairs of Indian hockey ended with a TV sting operation in 2008 in which he was allegedly accepting cash to select a player in the national squadJothikumaran 67 subsequently quit The IHF was dissolved an adhoc body was formed and eventually Hockey India came into being A Delhi High Court order in 2010 however revived IHF and even reinstated its president KPS GillNo more hockey for JothiJothikumaran has moved away from hockey and wonrsquot be seen watching the ACT ldquoI have a successful real estate consultancy and restaurant business I keep away from hockey and have not been invited for this ACT But recently FIH chief Tayyab Ikram and AHF Asian Hockey Federation chief Fumio Ogura who are here contacted me saying they want to meet their lsquoold friendrsquo Itrsquos nice to still have some friends in the gamerdquo he saysNot being part of the hockey set up has not blunted his knowledge his ability to recall events accurately While the organisers of the ACT say they are proud ldquoto bring international hockey back to Chennai after 16 yearsrdquo Jothikumaran wants to correct them ldquoItrsquos not 16 years but 15 years After the 2007 Asia Cup held at the Mayor Radhakrishnan Hockey Stadium India played a series against Belgium in 2008rdquo he points outAlso Read India aim to give final touches to Asiad preparation in Asian Champions TrophyBack to the controversy which caused his departure from hockey administration ldquoNo one filed any criminal proceedings against me despite that socalled sting operation In fact I have sued that TV channel for defamation and the matter is pending before the Madras High Court My lawyers have sought the original unedited footage which the channel has not yet submitted They put out a cutpaste edited version painting a false picturerdquo insists Jothikumaran going on to explain what actually transpired in that sting ldquoA person representing a Ghaziabad firm Sunshine Builders amp Promoters contacted me for the conduct of a tournament and paid a capitation fee of R2 lakh I even took them to meet my president Gill Then a passing mention of a national player was made and it was all blown up into a sting after the Indian hockey team failed to qualify for the Olympics for the first time ever in 2008 My only mistake was that I did not verify the credentials of the person carrying this fake visiting cardrdquo says Jothikumaran promptly whipping out the card from a bunch of meticulously preserved documents ldquoNothing was proved against me and it doesnrsquot take away all the good work done by IHF We organised around a dozen international events here between 1995 and 2008 including two Asia Cups two Champions Trophies SAFF Games the Chief Ministerrsquos Trophy besides bilateral series against Germany Pakistan Poland and Belgium In fact I was instrumental in introducing artificial turf here for the 1995 SAFF Games Initially hockey was not part of the Games so I urged then Indian Olympic Association president Sivanthi Adityan and secretary general Randhir Singh to include it so that a turf can come up The rest as they say is history as Dhanraj Pillay helped India beat Shahbaz Ahmedrsquos Pakistan 52 in a thrilling final for a famous gold medalrdquo adds JothikumaranIHF made mistakesThere is no doubt though that the IHF ran into many controversies and Jothikumaran admits there were errors ldquoThe first was when IHF decided to drop Dhanraj and five other seniors immediately after the 1998 Bangkok Asian Games gold Gill was the selection committee chairman and I told him that we shouldnrsquot change a winning combination but he felt that these players were over the hill Then when Viren Rasquinha was dropped for the 2006 Doha Asian Games again I was against it and even walked out of the meeting but couldnrsquot do much since a selection committee comprising Olympians and a government observer had made that callrdquo he explainsThe 2008 Beijing Olympics debacle hurts the most though ldquoAs part of the international hockey federationrsquos FIH 2007 Promoting Indian Hockey project funded by IOC I brought in Australian legend Ric Charlesworth as technical advisor but unfortunately the India team management did not use him properly Also FIH introduced a new Olympic qualifying format and India had to go all the way to Chile to win a tournament where the umpiring was questionablerdquo he saysPHL before IPL ISLMoney was never on IHFrsquos mind insists Jothikumaran ldquoIn fact while Hockey India today have big government sponsors Odisha and TN IHF only had Sahararsquos support We introduced the franchisebased Premier Hockey League in 2004 before cricketrsquos IPL and footballrsquos ISL Players got more money than they ever imagined Even when the State Bank of India awarded a cheque of R1cr for the 2007 Asia Cupwinning team we distributed every penny to the players IHF kept nothing so wherersquos the question of corruption God knows that my conscience is clearrdquo he saysTherersquoll be disbelievers and supporters but Indiarsquos hockey players of the 1990s and 2000s will never forget the name of K Jothikumaran