Hockey India lifts suspension on Bengal Hockey Association

The Bengal Hockey Association (BHA) must be singing the ‘all is well that ends well’ tune after the apex body – Hockey India – lifted its suspension on them following an assurance by the state body that it will set its house in order in a stipulated time frame.

Hockey India slapped a suspension order on the Bengal Hockey Association (BHA) after the state body went ahead and appointed a new secretary Salil Basu last December without intimating the apex body.

The truce happened after former Kolkata Police Commissioner Gautam Mohan Chakraborty, who is the Bengal Hockey Association (BHA) president, met Hockey India secretary Narinder Batra recently and thrashed out the ‘suspension’ issue.

It is learnt that Hockey India has given Bengal Hockey Association (BHA) six months time to sort out its way of functioning.

The lifting of the suspension means that the Bengal Hockey Association can take part in all tournaments organised by Hockey India besides holding tournaments under the HI banner.

It is learnt that the Bengal Hockey Association seems to have carried out the whole election exercise inadvertently.

Sources in BHA say the state body was not aware of any rule in the Hockey India constitution, which states that a state body has to inform the apex body whenever there is appointment or removal of its officials.

This line of thinking might have led Bengal Hockey Association to conduct its elections and elect Basu as its new secretary replacing legendary Indian full-back Gurbux Singh, who was serving in this role for the last sixteen years.

Gurbux, who was a member of the gold-winning 1964 Tokyo Olympics team, also captained the national team to glory in the 1966 Bangkok Asian Games, is now one of the six vice-presidents of Bengal Hockey Association.