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KULWINDER SINGH
MUMBAI, DEC 23: ``I will never let my son play hockey at least for India,'' said Dhanraj Pillay, skipper of the Indian team which won the hockey gold medal at the Bangkok Asian Games, on landing in Mumbai last night.
The unmarried Pillay fretted and fumed at the hardships the Indian contingent had to endure on arriving on home soil. ``This is the sorry state of affairs in Indian sport. Nobody would have dared to put up the cricketers with the kind of inconvenience we had to undergo. Even the hotel did not receive us with the traditional Indian aarti,'' Pillay said while chatting with mediapersons outside the premises of Hotel Leela.
Pillay had to oblige the handful of mediapersons on the road outside after the hotel management refused to allow photos being clicked inside the hotel premises. Pillay won over the mediapersons whom he had earlier shooed away at the Sahar International Airport. He covered his faced with the India blazer and even threatened photographers who dared to click him in spite of hisprotests. Pillay's foul mood was obviously at the cold reception and the indifference of the authorities in receiving a team returning with the much-coveted gold medal after 32 years. But the India skipper later agologised to the mediapersons. ``I am sorry for my behaviour. But in the heat of that moment all I wanted was to ensure that the nation did not get the impression that we were accorded a warm welcome.''
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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