At a time when Indian hockey’s Olympic hopes rest on the women’s team, players in the squad training in Lucknow for the qualifiers haven’t been getting their monthly pay-cheques.

They are slated to leave for Kazan, Russia, for their final qualifying tournament for the Beijing Games on April 9.

“I haven’t received any money since July 2007. Even yesterday, I went to the bank to see if any money had finally come in but there was nothing from the federation,” one of the players told The Indian Express, on the condition that she not be named for fear of action from the Indian Women’s Hockey Federation (IWHF).

Both IWHF president Vidya Stokes and Treasurer M P Ganesh claimed there was no delay in payment.

However, the federation’s Secretary Amrit Bose, when contacted, confirmed to The Indian Express that payments had been suspended. “The money hasn’t been paid for the last four months, not ten months (since July as the player said)...But the money is given by sponsors, not by us. We are only a via media between the players and the sponsors. We haven’t paid for the last four months because the money was not given by the sponsors.”

The sponsors deny this. The federation entered into a four-year contract worth Rs 1 crore annually with City Limouzines (India) Pvt Limited, a Mumbai-based company that rents out luxury cars. Of this money, Rs 50 lakh was to be given to the IWHF for development of the game and the rest to be passed on to the players and coaches as salary. The IWHF short-listed 40 players, who were to be paid between Rs 4,000 and Rs, 15,000 per month on a graded system. Said Deepak Pathak, the Delhi representative for City Limouzines: “We have paid the money. We have all the records,” he said.

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