Tenure guideline approved by Parliament, High Court: Gill

Sports Minister M S Gill on Monday wondered why the IOA and sports bosses were objecting to his tenure limiting guideline after it was approved by the Parliament and directed implementation by Delhi High Court.

"There was nothing new in the guideline. It had already been approved by the Parliament and Delhi High Court had issued directions for its implementation," Gill said after inaugurating astroturf hockey field at high altitude training centre of Sports Authority of India in Shilaroo, Himachal Pradesh.

"The Parliament and Indian Olympic association had approved the changes but for unknown reasons, the directives of the court were not implemented. The sports ministry had recently filed an affidavit on the functioning of various sports federation and if anybody had any objection he could go to the court," he said.

Gill sounded confident that the golden days of Indian hockey would return soon.

"Indian hockey had been at the top and its decline started after 1976 Montreal Olympic Games when rules were changed to play hockey on astroturf field which suited the foreign players but not Indians," he said.

"Our negligence at home was also partly responsible for falling standards of the game," he observed.

"We have started making astroturf fields and training players on these through regular coaching and results will be visible."

He said preparations for the Commonwealth Games were going on well.

"Most of the stadiums were ready and have been made keeping in view international standard, technology and architecture," he said.