Hockey India directs major changes, drops David John from World Cup Selection Committee
After the Hockey India elections recently, the initial reports suggested that newly elected President Mushtaq Ahmad was not very keen with the way High Performance Director had been taking care of things. Early this morning, news emerged that the the Hockey India President had now taken the decision to drop John from the World Cup Selection Committee for an alleged bias shown against senior players during interactions with the press. "I am not happy with David John commenting on individual players who played in Asian Games. As a matter of policy/principle we do not allow discussion on individual players in public domain and John by discussing that has broken all protocols," Mushtaque was quoted as saying by "Observing the bias of David John against few players of senior men's team, I have decided that John will not be a part of the senior men's selection committee for the World Cup. This is to ensure fairness in selection without any prior bias against anyone in anyone's mind," he further added. For the moment, it seems that John's job remains safe despite this being a major setback. The Australian's contract with Hockey India runs up to the 2020Olympics and no decision has been made on whether or not the contract will be allowed to run its complete course. PTI.
Also read: Three reasons why David John is not the right man for Indian hockey
The announcement came in the form of a letter that President Mushtaque wrote to his Secretary General Rajinder Singh asking for the change to be implemented. According to PTI's sources, it was also allegedly made clear that David John would not be a part of any selection committee henceforth. The massive change comes at the back of news that the Indian squad would be made to go through a major paradigm shift ahead of the World Cup to be held in Bhubaneshwar in the last weeks of November. It had been reported that most senior players would have been the ones implicated as they would have allegedly been dropped following a disappointing campaign at the Asian Games for the previous defending champions in the tournament.
Also read: Three reasons why David John is not the right man for Indian hockey
The announcement came in the form of a letter that President Mushtaque wrote to his Secretary General Rajinder Singh asking for the change to be implemented. According to PTI's sources, it was also allegedly made clear that David John would not be a part of any selection committee henceforth. The massive change comes at the back of news that the Indian squad would be made to go through a major paradigm shift ahead of the World Cup to be held in Bhubaneshwar in the last weeks of November. It had been reported that most senior players would have been the ones implicated as they would have allegedly been dropped following a disappointing campaign at the Asian Games for the previous defending champions in the tournament.