Punjab, MP ready to meet hockey players' demands

Pune:

With the situation of the Indian Hockey getting critical with time, the Punjab government and the Madhya Pradesh government have put their hands up in support of the team and decided to meet all their demands.

The Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said that the State government was willing to bear the expenditure for increased payment and training for players of Indian national hockey team.

An official release said that the Chief Minister made the offer at a meeting where he reviewed the functioning of the State sports department.

He also said that steps for implementing the offer would be taken soon.

Punjab Dy CM Sukhbir Singh Badal who is president of Punjab hockey federation felt sad on petty condition of Indian hockey players participating in a camp being organised for World Cup.

Badal told reporters in Bhatinda that the Punjab govt was ready to foot the expenses of the Indian hockey team. He said, "Punjab govt is willing to take all responsibilities, expenditures, training of all the players. We are willing to take on all the expenses and the training if they send the camp to the Punjab govt."

He offered Indian Hockey Federation to allow Punjab government to hold the camp and all expenses and salaries will be borne by the Punjab govt. because Punjab has a full fledged infrastructure for training. He even offerd to adopt entire Indian hockey team for futher training expenses.