Gill at his defying best

Former Director General of Punjab Police and presently the President of Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) KPS Gill, who is on the line of fire at the moment after Indian hockey team unprecedented Olympic debacle, is at his defying best which he has been doing pretty comfortably all through his career.

The never say die spirit of the old warhorse is quite apparent as he doesn’t want to accept the failure of his regime. It’s been 14 long years since he had taken over the post of IHF head honcho and from thereon Indian hockey reached to its worst.

However, the defiant Gill remained rock solid as ever as he didn’t want to take the blame of defeat on his drooping shoulders. In fact Gill clearly asserted while giving an interview to NDTV news channel that India had won 10 major hockey tournaments during his 14-year tenure.

"We were nowhere in hockey when I took over the post of IHF President but we have won approx 10 major titles since 1998," Gill said during his interview to NDTV channel.

Sitting comfortably in the IHF’s hot seat, Gill also cleared his stand that he is not going to give up. He will be enjoying his post till the year 2010 when India will be hosting the prestigious Commonwealth Games and World Cup hockey championship, which could also be taken back by world body FIH for some reasons.

Explaining the reasons behind the fear of losing out as the host of World cup, Gill said, “FIH wants India to keep Ric Charlesworth as coach and therefore they are intimidating us to take away the honour of hosting the World Cup from us."

Gill also raised his voice against the media for making it a personalised attack and dismissed any public outrage or pain over India's failure in spotting the Beijing Olympics berth.

“It is nothing but a "media propaganda" run by newspapers,” Gill claimed.

Replying on his hockey experience as an administrator, Gill said, "We used to run a hockey club in our house when he was a child way back in 1944.” He also said that he had promoted hockey and its players to the hilt during his tenure with Punjab Police.

He went on to repeat that India is been Asian champion in all the groups and had won three Asian titles during his term.

“We are the Asian champions in literally every age group and it is better than being eighth or ninth in the world," Gill resisted.