Team Orisports 16-Jul-2010 185
Late better than never. Orissa, the current cradle of Indian hockey, woke up in time to feel the effect of the ongoing fight to acquire power in the National game of India. Several developments led to such awakening.
It all started as three days after being appointed as the National selector by Indian Hockey Federation (IHF), Former India captain Dilip Tirkey turned down the offer following denial of permission by his employer, Air India. ‘‘Since Air India is affiliated to Hockey India, I was not given the permission to accept the role,’’ Olympian Tirkey told mediapersons here on Friday. He, however, said that if made the National selector, he would help new talents from Orissa play for the country.
Padmashree Tirkey’s denial to become National selector, in a way, made the state hockey fraternity sit up and take notice of the ongoing fight for power in the National game. The fraternity was surprised to kown that a Rourkela-based team was representing Orissa in the ongoing IHF National Championship at Bhopal and had beaten Uttarakhand 2-1 in their opening match. But Hockey Orissa secretary Pratap Satpathy, who was also the secretary of the earlier state body (Orissa Hockey Association) made it clear that Orissa as a state unit was not playing any official National championship now.
Meanwhile, hockey followers expressed their curiosity about identity of the State’s female representative for Hockey India’s General Body Meeting and elections set to be held at New Delhi on July 28. Even Satpathy, who would be the state’s male representative in the ensuing elections, could not identify his female counterpart. However, the list of official representatives published by hockeyindia.org, the official website of Hockey India, makes it clear that Sanjubala Mohanty will be the female representative of Orissa.
