No rift in hockey ad-hoc committee, says Kalmadi

New Delhi:

The Indian Olympic Association President and hockey's ad-hoc committee Chairman Suresh Kalmadi on Tuesday claimed there is no rift in the panel from which Randhir Singh resigned last week citing lack of transparency and accountability within the members.

"There is no rift in the ad-hoc committee. Since I was handling the ad-hoc committee, Randhir decided to handle other things," Kalmadi told reporters after attending a hurriedly convened meeting of the ad-hoc committee and selection panel members here.

IOA Secretary General Randhir stepped down last week after expressing unhappiness with the functioning of the committee which was formed last year to conduct the affairs of the hockey in a "transparent and professional manner".

Although Randhir agreed that there were some differences within the committee members, he said in today's meeting everything was sorted out.

"We had a meeting of ad-hoc committee and the selection committee today where in certain issues were raised by both sides.

"My resignation still stands but the ad-hoc committee is part and parcel of IOA and being an IOA official I am still associated with the committee. I have other responsibilities towards National Club Games and 2010 Commonwealth Games," he said.

"Whatever the problems and differences were there, all have been sorted out. From now onwards, the committee has decided to share information between the members on day-to-day basis," he added.

The IOA Secretary General termed the outcome of today's meeting as "positive" and said the ad-hoc committee has decided to conduct the Senior Nationals in Pune from March 2 to March 15.

"The outcome of the meeting was positive and we have decided to hold the Nationals in Pune to give more exposure to teams before the National Games in June," Randhir said. He also informed that two more members were added to the technical wing of the ad-hoc committee to provide momentum to their activity.

"The ad-hoc committee also decided to add to more members in the technical committee in Pargat Singh and Jagbir Singh. They will not only look into selection matters but will also take technical decisions related to the game."

Randhir said the committee also decided to send a selector with the national team on overseas tour to take an on-field assessment of players performance.

"From now onwards, a selector will accompany the national team on foreign tours for on the spot study and will report back to the committee with his findings."

Asked whether zonal system is applicable while picking up hockey's national selectors, he said, "I personally feel we shoud not have selectors from each zone because then people tend to become bias and push for the players of their respective zones."