Hockey India provides financial assistance to unemployed players

A total of 61 Indian athletes will get the benefit of this initiative.

With sports activities across India slowly opening up after the nationwide lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Hockey India Executive Board has announced its immediate support to 61 athletes from across the senior and junior men and women core probables that are not currently employed.

The ongoing pandemic has hit us hard in many ways. Apart from the immediate impact on health, the consequential clamping of economic activities has caused challenges among many including sportspeople. Athletes not holding employment face constraints impacting their ability to being able to return to sporting activities.

Therefore a total of 61 athletes will receive financial assistance from Hockey India. It includes 30 junior women, 26 junior men, 4 senior women and 1 senior men core probable. The objective is to provide basic financial relief for the athletes to be able to assist them to again resume sporting activities.

Hockey India officiating president, Gyanendro Ningombam said, "The ongoing battle with the Covid-19 pandemic has had an adverse impact on athletes who don’t have jobs, for them to be able to continue sporting activities while their families face financial constraints will be difficult. "

"Hockey India was keen to find a way to give them some immediate relief and has decided to help these players with Rs 10,000 each as financial assistance in these difficult times, which would mean they would not add any additional burden on their families as they look to resume sports activities in the near future. We hope this assistance will help the players to soon resume sporting activities and give them the necessary confidence to focus their energies on excelling for the country," he concluded.

Indian senior teams will resume their camps from August 19 at the Sports Authority of India (SAI) National Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru, following the completion of their 14-day quarantine period.

Manpreet Singh and five of his team-mates have already recovered from the deadly coronavirus and will soon join the team. The Indian captain along with goalkeeper Krishan Pathak, midfielder Jaskaran Singh, striker Mandeep Singh, and defenders Surender Kumar and Varun Kumar, had tested positive for COVID-19 earlier this month upon arriving at the national camp