Gill laments lack of
support for hockey

Hockey is nobody's child. Leave aside support, the team cannot even hope for congratulatory messages for their string of victories.

''The Indian team won the Prime Minister's Cup in Dhaka, defeating Pakistan in the final, the under-16 and under-18 Asia Cups and the Asian schools championship, but we got no congratulatory messages,'' Indian Hockey Federation president K P S Gill said.

''The triumph in the Prime Minister's Cup was no less than the French Open win of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi but no one cared to even congratulate us," he said at a function to felicitate the Indian team which won the under-18 Asia Cup on Sunday.

''We are on the way up but there is no support forthcoming from any quarters for the national game,'' Gill said.

He was critical of the Indian corporate sector's failure to support sports, but said the lack of support would not come in the way of building a strong team for the future.

"Money is not the sole motivator. Good times are ahead for hockey. After decades we have again started producing players,'' Gill said.

He added: 'We are now getting talent from all parts of India. For the first time we have a player from Kashmir in the junior team and he has shown tremendous promise. Three of our players - Jugraj Singh, Suraj Khantha and Rajpal Singh -- made it to the Asia XI team.''

Gill informed that some more players could have made it to the Asia XI but the Asian Hockey Federation wanted representation of all major hockey-playing nations of Asia.