CUTTACK: The Orissa High Court on Tuesday directed Hockey India to allow the Odisha men’s and women’s team to participate in the senior national (A division) championships after the team was barred from participating over not providing player details within the stipulated deadline.
Odisha Sports Secretary Vishal Dev welcomed the court orders, Pragativadi reports.
Responding to a petition by Hockey Odisha for allowing the men’s and women’s team to participate in the senior national championship scheduled this week, justice KR Mohapatra of the Orissa High Court in an interim order asked Hockey India to allow the teams to participate, the Odiya daily reported.
While the men’s championship will be held in Jhansi from Saturday, January 25 onwards, the women’s event will be played in Kollam starting January 30, the daily quotes Hockey Odisha general secretary Pratap Satapathy as having said here.
Hockey India last week had debarred 10 states, including Odisha, from participating in the national championships on the ground that they had not updated the details of the team members online a month before the beginning of the events.
With the State sponsoring the national men’s and women’s hockey teams and Bhubaneswar coming up as hockey capital of India, Odisha’s exclusion from the national tournament had drawn sharp criticism. The state government spent Rs 820 million for the 2018 men’s World Cup held in Bhubaneswar.
