BHUBANESWAR: Manpreet Singh tried to downplay an alleged incident that took place between Hockey India CEO Elena Norman and the Indian captain at the VIP lounge on Tuesday night. Norman had apparently yelled at Singh and other members of the Indian team who were there to watch the cross-over match between Canada and The Netherlands.
Singh, who was asked his version on the encounter, tried to defuse the situation. "It was our mistake," he said. "Players from all the teams are not allowed. We went there and it was a mistake on our part. It was not a big thing. I did not even remember about it when I woke up this morning."
When pressed on the matter, he denied that he was accepting responsibility because of external pressure. "There is no pressure on me to say what I am saying. Nobody told me to say this. I have no personal issue with Elena. If I had my phone, I would have shown you. It's been made into an issue. She is my colleague, we have good relations."
It had threatened to snowball into a major controversy after a person who witnessed Norman's outburst took to Facebook to describe what ensued between four members of the squad and the CEO. "(...) she (Norman) looked agitated and walked right through (...) to Team India players Manpreet Singh, Mandeep Singh, Gurjant Singh and Krishan Pathak. (...) a lot of others present were shocked to hear her abuse and berate the captain and other players using words like: 'get out from here, how dare you come here, now just shut up and get out'." Curiously enough, Singh neither denied nor confirmed that Norman had used those words.
Even if this was an unwelcome distraction, coach Harendra Singh said he had prepared all his charges well to deal with such situations. "Very good question (how do you protect the team from such distractions). I have learnt from experience. As soon as I took over, I gave a chart to my players. I told them what they have to concentrate on and what has to be thrown out. I always tell this to the players and their families. We have to draw a circle. What is in our hands (the things that we can control) should be put inside the circle and what is not in our hands should be thrown outside the circle. We should not waste our time or energy on that."
Hockey India are yet to issue an official communication on the matter.