‘Who approved it?’: HI president Dilip Tirkey seeks answers on jersey switch
Hockey India president Dilip Tirkey has challenged the federation's administrative leadership over the unauthorized decision to change the national team's jersey color. Tirkey argues that the move bypassed elected governance bodies and lacked the transparency required for such a significant symbolic change.
Why it matters
The dispute highlights critical governance and accountability issues within Indian sports federations, emphasizing the tension between administrative staff and elected officials.
BENGALURU: What began as a controversy over the Indian hockey team’s switch from its traditional blue jersey to saffron has now snowballed into a governance battle within Hockey India (HI).In a strongly worded letter to the federation’s director general (DG), Cdr RK Srivastava, HI president Dilip Tirkey has raised serious questions over authority, accountability and transparency in the decision-making process behind the jersey change.The letter, accessed by TOI, is Tirkey’s response to Srivastava’s July 31 explanation on the approval process. Questioning who authorised the redesign and whether due process was followed, Tirkey has sought answers from the federation’s administrative leadership, deepening the controversy.Describing the DG’s four-page reply as largely off the point, Tirkey wrote: “...the issue under consideration is not merely the colour or design of a playing jersey.
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