IT MIGHT be called as the Nagpur District Unified Hockey Association (NDUHA), but the association’s history is splattered with all unofficial and illegal appointments to its executive committee. Moreover, those at the helm at present, do not want to correct the wrong-doings of their previous ‘bosses’. As it had happened in the past, the current 17-member body has been formed without following general procedure. The body is not elected but each and every member is hand-picked by a few who also ‘managed’ to find a place in Hockey Maharashtra’s executive committee. Since Hockey India (HI) came into existence (2008), hockey in Vidarbha in general and Nagpur in particular, has taken a beating.

 

With Vidarbha Hockey Association (VHA) getting disaffiliated by HI in 2020, some of the so-called ‘game lovers’ who were sitting on the fence to grab the opportunity, joined hands with Hockey Maharashtra and got NDUHA affiliated. How Hockey Maharashtra gave the affiliation without following procedure is also a big question. In NDUHA’s case, the body was only on paper, even though it got registered with the Charity Commissioner’s office in 2012. Going into history, the first NDUHA body had Balraj Aher as its President and Salim Baig as Secretary. After the demise of Aher, Mamta Vinod Trivedi, was ‘anointed’ as the President for a few months. Later, the then Secretary Baig decided to hand over the ‘reigns’ to Shoeb Parvez (President) and Pramod Jain became Secretary. All this again took place without any elections. In August 2022, a refurbished NDUHA was declared with Pramod Thakre as its President and Parvez Qureshi as Secretary.

 

“The present NDUHA body members were not elected but are hand-picked,” claimed Joint Secretary Pramod Jain. A peeved Jain claimed that just one executive committee meeting has been called since this body was formed in August 2022. “Since then the members are kept in the dark by ‘self appointed’ Secretary Parvez Qureshi,” alleged Jain, who was also Joint Secretary of VHA until TN Sidhra was appointed as the Administrator by High Court. Interestingly Sidhra, too, was President of one of the NDUHA bodies, if a signed letter by him is to be believed. He had floated a parallel body in 2012 which had Suman Kapoor as Secretary and Shrikant Neral as Treasurer. No other members’ names were mentioned on the signed letter, dated 2/7/2012.

 

“The first ‘elected’ body of NDUHA had Balraj Aher as President and Salim Baig as its Secretary. As VHA got disaffiliated from Hockey India, I had asked Baig to get NDUHA affiliated with Hockey Maharashtra. He had then handed over the charge to Shoeb and myself. “Shockingly, I found out that I was removed as the Secretary and Parvez Qureshi anointed himself as NDUHA Secretary,” claimed Jain while talking with ‘The Hitavada’. “There were no elections held and no proper election procedure was followed. Pramod Thakre, who once conducted an all India Under-17 hockey tournament in Kalmeshwar, was declared as the President with Qureshi Secretary and Anil Daral as its Treasurer,” stated Jain. “All the decisions were taken by Qureshi without any consent of executive members. He himself removed Shoeb Parvez the then President, and vice-presidents Noel Joseph and Sunil Madne without any notice,” alleged Jain. Bringing forth the dictator-like attitude of Qureshi, Jain stated that a new post was created out of nowhere.

 

“Qureshi made Sandip Joshi as the Working President of NDUHA without anybody’s consent. There was no such post earlier. Parvez is running a one-man show and is calling all the shots.” Jain said. Since this current body came into existence (2022), not a single tournament has been conducted by NDUHA, hampering the future of hockey players of the district. As per the rules, each district has to organise six tournaments annually (sub-junior, junior and senior) in both men and women sections. If they fail their affiliation with the State body (Hockey Maharashtra) seizes automatically.

 

However, Hockey Maharashtra did not take any action on NDUHA, till date. Parvez Qureshi is Vice-President of Hockey Maharashtra. Jain also alleged that Hockey Maharashtra is itself not following its constitution. He stated that Manoj Bhore who is Senior Vice-President in the State body created the post for himself. “The post of Senior Vice-President is created only to accommodate Bhore in Hockey Maharashtra. As per constitution, he has to follow cooling-off period after being in the association for two terms (eight years). But he told me that ‘the constiution has been changed and he can stay for one more term’,” said Jain. It is a messy affair in NDUHA which could be termed as Nagpur District ‘Unofficial’ Hockey Association!