FIH official Bob Davidzon, also the project director of ‘Promoting Indian Hockey,’ ridiculed the Indian coach suggesting that he should know the rules of the event and try to be disciplined. “It is in the power of the manager to agree with the tournament director on a time and venue to have the compulsory ‘reading out’ of sentences to the players involved in an incident and that does not have to take place ‘in the middle of the night.’” Davidzon said.

Punishment likely

He said Carvalho and his support staff might be punished for lashing out at tournament officials and violating the FIH code of conduct.

“The Code of Conduct is very clear that all participants in a tournament...must not involve a personal attack on another player, umpire, appointed official or administrator. Non-adherence can lead to sanctions by the FIH for the persons concerned and the utterances by the coaching staff of India upon its return are at the moment under review and sanctions may apply,” he warned.

Davidzon said the “unjustified criticism” of the umpires by the Indian camp was due to the lack of knowledge about the rules of the game, a trend originating from the top of IHF. “The knowledge of the rules and the tournament briefing for the team and its staff was (as with some other teams) well below par, which leads to unjustified criticism on and appeal to the umpires and possibly ‘human’ reaction from their side,” he said.