The Daily Indian

Australia and New Zealand will send teams to the men’s field Hockey World Cup in New Delhi this month despite a reported threat from an Al-Qaida-linked organization against competitors in sporting events in India.

The Asia Times Online Web site published a message reportedly from guerrilla commander Ilyas Kashmiri, whose Kashmir-based 313 Brigade is an operational arm of al-Qaida. The message warns of potential attacks on the Hockey World Cup, the Indian Premier League cricket tournament and the Commonwealth Games in Delhi later this year.

“We warn the international community not to send their people to the 2010 Hockey World Cup, IPL and Commonwealth Games. Nor should their people visit India — if they do, they will be responsible for the consequences,” Asia Times Online quoted a translated message as saying.
The message was not verified, but Asia Times Online said it had interviewed the leader of the group in October.

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said Wednesday that Australian authorities were in the “closest possible” contact with their Indian counterparts over the threats.

“Indian authorities have pledged to implement strong security procedures for all upcoming sporting events in India,” he said. “We, however, will be following this very, very closely.”

The Australian men’s field hockey team will have an armed guard throughout the World Cup according to local media, but national coach Ric Charlesworth was quoted as saying he was not overly concerned at the threat.

“There are people who know better than us who are looking at these things closely,” he said.

The field hockey World Cup is due to run from Feb. 28 to March 13.

Hockey New Zealand chief executive Hillary Poole said the New Zealand team would attend the tournament, although its departure for India would be delayed.

The New Zealand team was due to leave for India on Feb. 22, but Poole said players would remain in Perth, Australia until further notice. New Zealand is due to play Australia in matches on Wednesday and Friday.

“We have been monitoring this situation all along. But the events over the past 24 hours have led us to reassess the situation,” Mr. Poole said.

New Zealand Prime Minister John Key said officials are monitoring the situation closely and working closely with Indian authorities.

“We are not in a position to assess whether that threat is real or not,” he said. “The decision whether to travel or not ultimately rests with the sporting team. We wouldn’t stop a sporting team going, but it’s important we are able to give them the best information possible so that they can assess that.”

The New Zealand Olympic Committee, which also has responsibility for the Commonwealth Games, said Wednesday it was aware of the new threat and was closely monitoring the security situation within India.

“The information we have is that the security preparations (for the Commonwealth Games) are going well and in that area the games will be very well provided for,” NZOC president Mike Stanley said.

Australian Commonwealth Games Association chief executive Perry Crosswhite said he had discussed the threats with Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs.

“They’re looking into it, as far as the validity of it, and also the authenticity of it,” he told ABC Radio. “At this point we haven’t certainly changed anything.”

The head of the New Zealand Cricket Players Association, Heath Mills, said the Al-Qaida warning raised questions about the security of sporting events in India, including the IPL.
“This was already a very serious issue, but in the light of recent developments, I think it must cast doubt on whether the events will even go ahead,” Mr. Mills said.

Australian Cricketers’ Association chief executive Paul Marsh agreed the threat level in India had escalated.

“We’ve gone from a situation where the threat levels in India have been concerning in recent times, but now your looking at a probably legitimate, direct threat against the event,” he said.

Australia’s foreign affairs department said it was assessing the reported threat.
“At this stage we have no immediate plans to amend our travel advice for India,” a spokesperson said in a statement.

New Zealanders’ travelling to India have been warned to consult government travel advice.

The disgruntled national hockey players, on Monday, continued their indefinite boycott of the World Cup preparatory camp to protest the non-payment of their dues and incentives.

The squad, demanding incentives for their performance in the year gone by, had, on Sunday, decided to go on strike despite reaching a truce with Hockey India officials in New Delhi just a day before.

“We are not training from this morning. We are waiting for Hockey India officials to arrive. We came to know that Hockey India officials are coming to meet the team. The team will have a meeting with them and let’s see what happens,” said senior forward Prabhjot Singh, who has been appointed by his team-mates as their representative.

“Hopefully, things will be resolved by this evening. If all the boys are satisfied with the outcome, we will end the strike immediately,” he added.

Hockey India, on Sunday, reacted sharply to players’ decision with treasurer Narinder Batra accusing them of blackmailing the Federation and holding the nation to ransom.

“It’s really shocking. They agreed to our offer yesterday and now they are back on strike. They can’t hold a nation to ransom,” he said.

Batra claimed HI listened to all the grievances of the players and offered a solution too.

“They talked about insurance cover, graded systems and even the alleged poor quality of food they had at the Pune camp. We told them what we can immediately we will do. We even agreed to compensate for the poor food, arrange a meeting with the sponsor as they demanded and HI president (AK Mattoo) went to the extent of promising them Rs 1 crore each if they win the World Cup. We said we would get the money anyhow for them”, he said.

Chandigarh, Feb 4:The absence of an electric timer and a scoreboard has put the organisers of the Punjab Gold Cup hockey tournament in bad light.

With Olympic champions Germany and European winners Netherlands taking part in this four-nation tournament, the officials have failed to provide basic amenities at the Sector-42 Stadium.

International players were surprised at the apathy of the organisers.

“We don’t need any digital scorecard but it would certainly have been better if we had the provision of an electric timer before us. It is very rare in an international tournament that we do not have an electric timer as we are facing a big difficulty in keeping tab on time while playing,” German midfielder Otto told IANS Wednesday.

Even India coach Harender Singh felt that the absence of a timer is hampering the team’s strategy.

“A timer is of utmost importance in an international match as the strategy of players keeps on changing at short intervals. Overall, we are happy with all the arrangements here but there should have been an electric timer,” he said.

Organisers Punjab Government, however, had a different take on it.

“Everything was at right place before the tournament but certain errors came to surface just before the start. Our technicians are working on them and hopefully the timer will start working in the next matches,” said Olympian Pargat Singh, who is the director of Sports department.

He added that if the timer still doesn’t work properly then they would procure one on rent.

Mar del Plata, Jan 22 India wasted many chances to go down 0-2 to Argentina in the third hockey Test at the Estadio Panamericano here Thursday.

India, however, lead the four match series 2-1.

Argentina scored both the goals in the first half through Matias Paredes (6th min) and Lucas Vila (32nd min).

India began on an attacking note but the forwards missed chances.

In the second minute, Shivendra Singh, set up by Rajpal Singh, saw his shot kissing the post and going wide. Immediately thereafter, Deepak Thakur and Tushar Khandker wasted golden opportunities with only Argentine goalkeeper Juan Manuel Vivaldi to beat.

Argentina regrouped thereafter and mounted concerted attacks on the Indian defence with crafty manoeuvers from winger Ignacio Bergner and striker Tomas Argento.

India were on the backfoot as Matias Paredes stole the ball from Sandeep Singh in the sixth minute and shot home with a reverse to give Argentina the lead.

India soon missed a chance for the equaliser as Thakur was unable to control a long slap ball from Sandeep Singh.

Argentina steadily gained momentum with good midfield coordination and ball control even as their defenders kept the Indian attacks at bay.

India conceded a penalty corner in the 32nd minute and Lucas Vila beat goalkeeper Baljit Singh with a low flick on the right.

Shortly before the half-time, India earned their first penalty corner but skipper Sandeep Singh’s dragflick went over the bar.

There were a few spirited attacks by India in the second half but Argentina custodian Vivaldi stood like a rock blunting them.

He first foiled Bharat Chikara, who came from the left flank and then Prabhjot Singh from a 45 degree angle. Attempts from Thakur and S.V. Sunil also went up in smoke as Vivaldi proved his class.

India will play the final match here Friday.

Mar del Plata (Argentina), Jan 19: Deepak Thakur’s brace scripted India’s 2-1 win against Argentina in the first Test of the four-match Series at the Panam National Stadium at here today.
The veteran Indian Oil striker sounded the boards on the 18th and 41st minutes, while Matias Paredes reduced the margin for Argentina in the 65th minute with a penalty corner deflection.

It was, however, the hosts who looked more attacking of the two sides as they forced their first penalty corner as early as in the fourth minute but Indian goalkeeper Baljit Singh foiled Juan Ignacio Gilardi’s drag-flick.

India soon settled down with controlled midfield play from VS Vinaya and Gurbaj Singh constantly setting up forwards Rajpal Singh, Tushar Khandker and Prabhjot Singh.

India could have taken the lead in the seventh minute when Rajpal sent a sizzling cross to Thakur, whose deflection was well taken by Argentina goalkeeper Juan Manuel Vivaldi and off the rebound, Thakur shot wide.

Argentina attempted numerous forays with rapid interchanges and overheads but they were superbly checked by deep defender and old India warhorse Dilip Tirkey.

However, on one occasion, Mario Almada managed to get past Tirkey but Baljit dived to his right to bring off a spectacular save.

India finally took the lead in the 18th minute when Rajpal intercepted in the centre to set up Khandker. The wily Jhansi lad then pushed to the overlapping Prabhjot who dodged past two Argentine defenders releasing to Thakur who did not make any mistake this time.

Argentina soon had a couple of chances to restore parity from penalty corners but on both occasions, Baljit foiled Pedro Ibarra’s flicks.