The ‘other man’ in the IHF

There are others such as I Rehman, secretary of the Bhopal Hockey Association (BHA), who even go to the extent of saying Gill isn’t in the right company. “Gill can’t go everywhere and that is the reason he has to bank on people like Jothi. They don’t give him the right feedback.”

But then the obvious question would be: Why doesn’t Gill get rid of Jothi? And that’s where one stumbles upon the murky world of vote politics that is the bane of most sports bodies in the country and the reason behind the secretary’s long reign in the IHF.

Rapid growth

Former IHF president and Chennai-based business tycoon MAM Ramaswamy initiated Jothi into the hockey officialdom in the early 90s. Since then things changed for the SBI clerk, who, in the years to come, opened a chain of hotels in Madurai. In the 1994 IHF elections, Jothi aligned with Gill and that meant the former DG Police’s entry into the hockey arena was smooth. With the northern units backing Gill, Jothi took care of the southern votes. So it came as no surprise when Gill made Jothi the secretary.

Jothi soon started representing IHF at world meets and he was seen as the face of India hockey internationally. He still remains the contact point between the IHF and FIH. The secretary happens to be the IHF’s hands-on person for FIH’s project Promoting Indian Hockey.

Such has been Jothi’s influence that he managed to get an astro-turf for Tirunelveli with government funding. It wouldn’t be out of place to mention here that Mumbai’s long-standing demand for a replacement of an overused astro-turf field has for years been falling on deaf ears.

There are many within the federation who feel that Jothi has mixed priorities. I Rehman, the secretary of the Bhopal unit, says: “In order to garner majority, Jothikumaran and Gill have made other associations defunct — all those they considered a threat to their empire.” According to Rehman, Jothikumaran’s biggest mistake was to stop conducting national tournaments. “That was the event that got us a number of national players from small cities. He concentrated on the PHL. It gives money, but youngsters don’t get a chance to show their skills there,” he says.

There have been rumours in the hockey circles that Jothi and Gill haven’t been on talking terms for months now. Perhaps, though a little too late in the day, Gill has realised that he needs a new Man Friday.

But the question remains: Can he afford to sideline Jothi? In an association where staying in power is clearly more important than worrying about the future of Indian hockey, it seems highly unlikely.