File picture of the state junior men’s hockey team

Bhubaneswar, June 26: Hockey players from the state are a disgruntled lot. They are hurt that the department of sports and youth affairs did not give them any incentive or cash award at a recent ceremony.

Two Olympians were given Rs 50,000 each during the function for representing India. But players at the sub-junior, junior and senior levels, who had won laurels for the state at national events, were completely ignored, a hockey stalwart said.

At the ceremony hosted on June 20, 113 sportspersons from different age groups were given incentives and cash awards in 12 sporting disciplines for the 2007 to 2012 period while 16 others were felicitated with cash awards for extraordinary performances in various disciplines.

Among the awardees were players who, despite being from Odisha, never represented the state.

A case in point is international shooter Shriyanka Sadanagi and karate champion Valena Valentina, who have been representing Andhra Pradesh since last year.

However, members of the state sub-junior boys’ hockey team, which has consecutively won the national championship for the past three years, and the junior men’s hockey team, which has finished runners-up for the third time since the tournament began in 2011, were nowhere to be seen on the awardees’ list. This has upset members of the Odisha Hockey Association.

“Six of our girls and five men play for the national teams. Our sub-junior and junior teams win many titles throughout the year. But none of them were felicitated at the recent ceremony. This was extremely disappointing,” said Pratap Satpathy, secretary of the association.

Sports secretary Injeti Srinivas, however, said the players had been late in sending in their names for the awards and hence, could not be awarded. “We had invited applications from players. The association could have sent them. But there was a delay in the names’ list reaching us. As the awards had been pending for five years, we went ahead with the ceremony,” he said.

He said these players would be given their awards during the launch of the new hockey turf at Kalinga Stadium.

Satpathy said this was an excuse. “Every time our players bring home a laurel we inform the directorate of sports through letters and they are expected to keep a record of the performances. Moreover, the players living in the state sports hostels are under the supervision of the directorate. When they could award players from other disciplines who did not apply for the incentives, why is hockey being neglected?” he asked. The secretary said “coconut breakers” (referring to Keshab Swain) who created Guinness Records, had been awarded Rs 75,000 even though their discipline was not counted as a sport. “It is sad that those who took part in the 2012 London Olympics from the state were given only Rs 50,000 each.”

Former Indian hockey captain Prabodh Tirkey, who led the national team in 2007, said the players were caught in the middle of miscommunication between the association and the sports department.

“Neither of them took the initiative to inform us (about the awards) despite the fact that we were either busy at training camps or at the government offices where we work,” said Tirkey.

“On the one hand, the state government announces the production of in-house hockey gear and neglects players on the other. How can this lead to any development of the sport?” asked the senior player.

A handful of tennis players who had bagged titles or took state tennis to a higher level in the past five years were also not on the incentive list.

“We can only blame gap of communication between the government authorities and players as well as coaches for the lapse,” said Santosh Mallik, coach of Chinmay Pradhan, who had finished runners-up in an All India Tennis Association men’s singles event last year and won the finals of the same this year.

“The authorities should inform the players about these significant awards. It is impossible for us to keep a track of advertisements inviting applications since these appear once in five years,” said Mallik.