Hockey players stay away from charity match

CHANDIGARH - The Indian hockey team decided to stay away from a charity match with Bollywood stars and TV celebrities after the organisers claimed that the players asked for a huge appearance fee for the game Saturday.

Indian team captain Rajpal Singh strongly refuted the allegations and termed it an attempt to malign their image. He also demanded an apology from the organisers.

Sanjeev Kochhar, spokesperson of AMR Foundation, the organisers, said: “Initially in the morning, the players were demanding Rs.4-5 crore for playing the match. But during the negotiations, which went for over three-hours, they settled on Rs.2 crore but it was clearly beyond our budget.”

“We offered them Rs.54 lakh. But they were quite adamant and refused to budge from their stand. But we cannot abandon the match. The stadium is full and we had a match between the celebrities.”

Visibly disappointed, Rajpal accompanied by teammates Deepak Thakur and Prabhjot Singh, who came here Saturday morning, left the Mount View hotel in the evening.

“It is all false and baseless. They are maligning the players. I do not know why are they making false allegations against us. I think there is a major communication gap between the players and organisers,” Rajpal told IANS.

The hockey players, who had a day off from their preparation for the World Cup beginning Feb 28, were scheduled to play against Bollywoood stars and TV celebrities. But only three players, including Rajpal, came here for the match at the Sector 42 Stadium.

Kochhar said they have not thought about taking any legal action against the players.

“If we had suspended the match, we would have suffered a big loss. But now the match is on. Therefore, for the time being, we are not planning to take any legal action.”

The players had a different take on the issue.

“It seems the organisers did not provide air tickets to the players and that is why they failed to come to Chandigarh,” said Indian team forward Deepak Thakur.

One of the officials of AMR Foundation said the money raised from the charity match would have gone to the players, but they had fears whether anything would come out from the match and so were demanding money.

Film stars Dharmendra, Govinda, Sunil Shetty along with some TV celebrities were scheduled to take on the hockey team.

The timing of the match has been questioned by former players as it cames just a week before the World Cup.

Balbir Singh (senior), who was the manager of Indian hockey team that won the World Cup in 1975 said: “I appreciate their gesture but the timing is totally wrong for this charity match. Where were they for the last two-three years? Now out of a sudden, just a few days before the start of the World Cup, they planned this match.”