Hockey India president Dilip Tirkey and secretary-general Bholanath Singh, in a joint statement issued Wednesday, have asserted that allegations made by former women’s team coach Janneke Schopman and outgoing CEO Elena Norman were “not correct”.
Norman, who held the post of CEO for nearly 13 years, in an interview with PTI alleged that there were two factions inside Hockey India. She further added that the work environment became progressively challenging.
“There are two factions in Hockey India. There is (president) Dilip Tirkey and I and there is (secretary) Bholanath Singh, (executive director) Cdr. R K Srivastava and (treasurer) Sekar J Manoharan,” she had said.
Schopman resigned as the head coach of the Indian women’s hockey team, a month after the team failed to qualify for the Paris Olympics. Soon after, HI’s long-serving CEO Elena Norman also resigned.
In response, HI released a statement denying the allegations. “Recently there have been statements by outgoing officials published in the media, claiming that there are divisions within the organisation. This is not correct. We remain united in working together, and as always in the best interest of the sport,” the statement said.
“Hockey India is an autonomous and professional body dedicated to the development of Indian Hockey. Our primary objective as an organisation has been and continues to remain the welfare and progress of the sport of Hockey and our athletes. In this spirit, our entire focus remains on growing our talent, ensuring all hosted events are conducted with utmost professionalism and our national teams are receiving the best support to support their performance on the global stage.”
“The Federation has treated the teams and all players equally with equal benefits and training facilities, including cash awards and monetary recognition that is at-par and is purely based on performance. We have built our ethos around equity and equal opportunities right from the grassroots levels across states as well as on a national level,” the statement added.
Tirkey and Singh said their focus is now on rebuilding the women’s team, which failed to qualify for the Olympics, and helping the men’s side that is due to compete in the quadrennial showpiece in Paris this year.
“We will continue in this pursuit of excellence and rebuild the women’s team with a fresh approach to providing the right infrastructure and training to enhance their performance,” they stated.
“In addition to this, we are cognisant of this being an Olympic year and are dedicated to aide the National Men’s Team with the required support to stand on the podium yet again in the forthcoming Olympic Games in Paris this year.”
Days before resigning as India women’s hockey team coach, Schopman highlighted how she felt ‘undervalued’ by HI officials.
“But for me personally, coming from the Netherlands, having worked in the USA, this country is extremely difficult as a woman, coming from a culture where, yeah, you can have an opinion and it’s valued. It’s really hard,” she had told during a media interaction recently.
