New Delhi. Following Pakistan’s refusal to tender an apology for its hockey team’s “lewd and unprofessional behavior” during the FIH Champions Trophy 2014 in Bhubaneswar, Hockey India (HI) has decided to withdraw its junior team from the prestigious Sultan of Johor Cup in Malaysia (Oct 22-29) for the second year in succession.
In Bhubaneswar during FIH Champions Trophy 2014 Pakistan players took off their T-shirts, used obscene language and one of them even showed the middle finger to the spectators after their victory over India in the semifinals. After the incident, India has taken a firm stand that it will not play Pakistan in any tournament unless the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) apologises.
Tensions between the two federations had flared up in December last year as well after the PHF alleged that it was denied entry to the 2016 Junior World Cup at Lucknow because of what had happened in Bhubaneswar. The International Hockey Federation (FIH) had categorically denied PHF’s allegations, saying that the Pakistan team was denied entry because it had failed to submit the travel documents by the official deadline. However, PHF stuck to its stand that its team had been denied participate because Hockey India continued to harbour grudge following the Bhubaneswar incident.
Hockey India spokesperson, RP Singh, said in a statement: “By not fielding the Indian team at the Sultan of Johor Cup, we have stood our ground to not take part in any series against Pakistan until they submit an unconditional apology for what happened in 2014.
“Since the Sultan of Johor Cup is not a mandatory tournament, Hockey India has decided that it will withdraw from the tournament. We had not brought up the bad behaviour on part of Pakistan during the FIH Champions Trophy in 2014 for a very long time. It is actually PHF who bring it up again and levy baseless allegations against Hockey India to hide their own incompetency. It is about time PHF takes responsibility for it’s (sic) incapability.”
