| If cricket legend Kapil Dev chose BBC World to break
down and proclaim his innocence relating to allegations on match fixing,
hockey star Dhanraj Pillay decided to pour his heart out to Sahara
Samay Rashtriya and announce his retirement at Athens.
Speaking exclusively to Sahara Samay sports editor Sundeep Misra
at the Olympics yesterday, Pillay, considered one of the most mercurial
hockey players that India has produced, claimed that the foreign
coach did not let him play a full game, which could, probably, be
his last.
When asked whether the hockey team management played foul with
him, considering he was on the verge of retiring after playing for
16 years, Pillay, in the exclusive interview, said, “I thought
that I would be given full 70 minutes of play. I have played so
much for India… I am a fighter, but this was wrong. (Pillay
was allowed to play just slightly over two minutes in India’s
last game in the hockey segment.) But I have taken all this in a
sporting way.”
How did Pillay feel after four Olympics, four hockey World Cups
and four Asian Games? He told Sahara Samay, “I never thought
I wouldn’t make (the) first eleven. Many people knew this was
my last Olympics; maybe the coach also knew. The understanding between
my coach and myself is not good, but whatever happened was not right.”
Pillay also hinted in the TV interview that the German coach may
have taken offense at his outspokenness and frankness during some
post match post-mortem and meted out such a treatment to him in
the last outing of the Indian hockey team at the Athens Olympics.
“After we lost to Holland, our coach talked to us and for
35-40 minutes. He just pointed our negative qualities. I didn’t
like this and I also spoke (back). Probably, that was a mistake.
The problem started from there. Even in Germany, he didn’t
make me play in the starting eleven.
Would Pillay like to continue? “No. If I want, I can play
more hockey. I am the fittest player in the team. But what happened
today (Friday), may be, even the (hockey) federation doesn’t
know about it. After playing for 16 years, a player has the right
to retire properly. After Olympics, I would sit down and think about
my future. But I am very disappointed from this Olympics. I will
always feel bitter that even after playing four Olympics, I was
not allowed to play my last game properly.”
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