Unhappy over high performance director David John’s alleged bias against some members of the Indian men’s team, newly appointed Hockey India President Mohd Mushtaque Ahmad removed him from the selection committee for the World Cup.
The recently sworn-in Ahmad informed this decision to the board’s CEO Elena Norman via email.
“Observing the bias of David John now has against few players of senior men’s hockey team, I have decided that [he] will not be a part of the selection committee for World Cup. This is to ensure fairness in selection without any prior bias against anyone in anyone’s mind,” he wrote in the email.
Referring to John’s comments in a recent newspaper article, Ahmad told the CEO: “I am not at all happy with David John commenting on individual players, who played in the Asian Games. We Hockey India as a matter of policy / principle do not allow discussion on individual players in public domain and David John by discussion that has broken all protocols.”
The President also asked the CEO discuss this matter with John as well as what he’s done for the “development of grassroot level programme for hockey in India”, “coaching programme for Indian-born coaches” among other things.
A top HI source, however, said that “as of now” John’s contract, which runs till 2020 Tokyo Olympics, is safe.
“As of now, John will continue as High Performance Director. There is no change in that, but he will not henceforth be a part of any selection committee of HI,” a source from the HI told PTI on condition of anonymity.
John left for Argentina on Tuesday as part of Indian contingent for the Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires. India are fielding both men’s and women’s teams in Hockey 5s competition in the Youth Olympics.
With inputs from PTI
