VHA women’s team left starving on way to Rohtak

By Paritosh Pramanik

VIDARBHA Hockey Association (VHA) is always in news, most of the times for wrong reasons. Be it not holding elections of the executive body or not maintaining the playfield, or not holding regular tournaments, VHA has earned a bad name for itself in the past couple of years.
If this was not enough, now even the players have started accusing them of serious breaches which would further tarnish the association’s image.
Members of senior women’s hockey team have complained of being left starving while on their way to Rohtak to participate in the Hockey India’s Senior Women’s National Championship (Division B).
After losing to Hockey Himachal and playing a 1-1 draw with Jammu and Kashmir VHA women’s team returned to the city on April 17.
Immediately on their return, a few annoyed players of the team have made a written complaint to VHA stating that they were left starving while on their way to Rohtak, allegedly by the team manager Reena Samudre.
‘The Hitavada’ has in its possession a copy of the signed complaint which the players submitted to VHA on Monday. They have blamed Reena Samudre for not providing dinner while on their way to Rohtak. The complaint was received by VHA joint secretary Pramod Jain but no further steps were taken.
As per the complaint the team reached Delhi late and their connecting train to Rohtak, too, was running late by a few hours. The team reached Rohtak well past midnight and had to sit outside the stadium till 2.30 am, it has been learnt.
“We left Nagpur for New Delhi on April 12 night. We had our lunch next afternoon (April 13) at Gwalior and reached Delhi same night. We had train to Rohtak from Delhi at around 10.30 pm.
“As all players were hungry we asked Reena madam for dinner but she refused,” said one of
the players on condition of anonymity.
To their utter shock, the players were told they should have saved some food from their lunch for dinner.
“We were told by the manager that we should have saved some food from our lunch. We did not get any food whole night as we reached the venue (Rohtak) well past midnight. It was only on 14th morning that we got the breakfast,” the player narrated 
the ordeal.
The player also complained that the manager was accompanied by her family members which included her four-year 
old kid.
“Against the rules, two of the family members accompanied the manager and stayed with her. She (manager) accused us of creating discord among the team which was not the case. She talked very rudely and at times used abusive language,” the player alleged.
VHA Secretary DS Karunashankar denied any such happening. When informed that a complaint letter has been handed over to joint secretary Jain, Karunashankar said, “I met Jain today but he did not talk of any such complaint letter.”