NEW DELHI: The government has insisted that the Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) send its junior team to the Soviet Union in August as scheduled failing which a Sports Authority of India (SAI) team would have to be sent.
According to sources here, the IHF had proposed the juniors trip under the Indo USSR sports protocol for a series of matches in August.
But the sources said the IHF now pleaded inability to send the team in August for various reasons and suggested postponing the trip by a month.
The reasons given by the IHF were the visit of a Cuban team in July the Senior National Championship currently on and that the Juniors were still preparing in a coaching camp in Gandhinagar.
The Government, the sources said, refused to accept the reasons given by the IHF for the postponement of the trip as the Cuban trip had been called off the juniors did not have anything to do with the Senior National Championship and that the Russian tour would not be only competitive. Though the government according to sources, conceded that adequate preparation was required, it pointed out that the trip would not be purely for competition thereby making it clear that it would be for training of competition.
The government asked the THF to reconsider its decision regarding the postponement of the tour or else it would have to send an SAI special area games (SAG) scheme team.
Article extracted from this publication >> August 11, 1989
