Indian Hockey Players protest against non-payment of dues

Indian hockey plunged into a fresh crisis on Friday with revolting hockey players deciding to boycott the ongoing World Cup preparatory camp here for an indefinite period in protest against non-payment of their dues.The players took the unprecedented step to stay away from the camp after Hockey India, the interim body which is governing the game in the country, failed to respond to two of their letters asking the authorities to make the payments. "We have decided to boycott the camp indefinitely till we are paid our money. We took such a decision in a meeting of players last night", captain Rajpal Singh said. "Earlier we used to be paid after every tournament but it is not the case now. We had reminded the HI officials a few times, but nothing has been done. We will now report to the camp only after we are paid", Rajpal said.
Hockey India (HI) is, however, confident of sorting out the issue and has called some of the senior players for a meeting in New Delhi on Saturday. Six of the senior players --captain Rajpal Singh, Sardara Singh, Prabhjot Singh, Sandeep Singh, Tushar Khandekar and Arjun Halappa --will be in Delhi on Saturday for a promotional shoot and are expected to meet the HI officals to sort out the payment issue. Apart from their dues, the players are also demanding an increase in their pay packages and some incentives.