Bangalore:

Five Karnataka hockey players in the national squad for the London Olympics, left for their European sojourn ahead of the Games rather disappointed after the state government decided not to reward them for their ‘appearance’ at the quadrennial event.

In an unexpected turn of events last week, the players, who had initially been asked whether they would be able to reach Bangalore for a cash awards function, were told that the government had already paid them Rs 5 lakh for qualifying for the Olympics, one of the players said that it was sad that they had been denied. “It is after a long time that five from Karnataka are in the Olympic squad. It is a matter of pride.

“Many other states have announced hefty rewards to their players for having made the Olympic squad. The Maharashtra government said they would pay Rs 15 lakh to Shivendra Singh and Tushar Khandker. Punjab and Haryana too have similar plans in line,” he said.

Quoting chief minister Sadananda Gowda, who had said that his government may give Rs 5-10 lakh to the Olympic-bound athletes, the player said, “We haven’t got similar encouragement from the government.”

The player agreed that athletes from other sports too would have to be paid for having made it to the Olympics. “It would have been better if each one of us was paid additional amount as a goodwill gesture. It would have encouraged us,” he said.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / Home> Olympics 2012 / by Shrivathsa Sridhar, TNN / June 26th, 2012