HI acts tough; bans players, officials

The Hockey India disciplinary committee on Thursday imposed a ban on players and coaches for bringing disrepute to the sport during various events.

The committee recommended a ban of six months on senior international Sarvanjit Singh and Karamjit Singh, players of Punjab & Sind Bank, and Air India’s Gurpreet Singh with effect from April 1, 2014 from all Hockey India tournaments. The three players were involved in an altercation during the 48th All India Bombay Gold Cup Tournament, resulting in issuance of red cards to all of them.

Each player will be on a probation period of one year from October 1, 2014 and any repeat incident of such nature will result in a ban of one year.

Indian Army player Bachitter Singh was also handed a ban of six months for physically and verbally assaulting the on-field umpire, Virender Singh, during the 3rd All India Sahizada Ajit Singh Hockey Champions Trophy last year.

Namdhari XI’s Harpreet Singh was banned from playing any tournament for a period of three months beginning April 1, 2014.

Also, all the 16 members of the NC Railways women’s team have been banned for a period of six months beginning this April 1 for walking off the field and not continuing a match against Haryana XI during the India Invitation Prize Money women’s tournament match this February 28.

Team manager, Pushpa Srivastava, was banned for a similar period while coach, Shradha Verma, received a ban of nine months.

“The ban was imposed after due consideration of the facts presented before the members and hearing of the players and coaches,” HI said in a statement on Thursday.
All the banned players will have a chance to appeal against the decision within 30 days to Hockey India Athletes Dispute & Grievance Redressal Committee.