New Delhi: While the Indian cricket team got a hero’s welcome upon their arrival in Mumbai, the Indian hockey team is irked by the “step-motherly treatment” it was meted out after having won the Asia Cup.
The team members have gone on a 'hunger strike' but t his offensive has failed to cut any ice with Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, Kumaraswamy said the hockey team will also be treated equally well if they win the Hockey World Cup.
The statement comes on a day when chief coach of the national team Joaquim Carvalho expressed his disappointment that while title victory of his wards in the Asia Cup was ignored, the Indian cricket team was given a hero’s welcome.
"Why our hockey players are being treated like orphans and why our politicians are biased against hockey, the national game?" Carvalho was quoted as saying by news agencies.
He said a coach and four players had planned to go on hunger strike before the Karnataka Chief Minister's house to protest announcment of Rs five lakh cash award each for the members of the cricket team, while "treating the State hockey players like dust".
(With inputs from PTI)
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