The Daily Mirror was informed by G. Vishvanathan, the President of the Sri Lanka Hockey Federation (SLHF), that the Asian Hockey Federation (AHF) will provide a compensation of US $10,000 to the SLHF. This compensation is being given to the Sri Lanka Women’s Hockey Team, who qualified for the Asian Games Hockey Tournament in Hangzhou, China. The team performed well at the Qualifying Tournament held in Indonesia in 2022. Despite meeting the qualifying standard set by the AHF, the National Olympic Committee of Sri Lanka (NOCSL) and the National Selection Committee (NSC) believed that the team did not reach the required standard to compete at the Asian Games. As a result, the team was unable to participate in the Asian Games. It is worth noting that the Sri Lanka Women’s Hockey Team funded their own participation in the Asian Games Qualifying Tournament in Indonesia. Recognizing the unfairness faced by the team, the AHF has decided to compensate the 18 players who took part in the qualifying tournament. The compensation will be presented to the team members by Sports Minister Harin Fernando during a ceremony at the SLHF Headquarters in Colombo on December 19 at 4.00 p.m. Additionally, the Sports Minister has plans to visit and assess the deteriorated Astro Turf hockey grounds at Reid Avenue. In fact, a Cabinet Memorandum has already been submitted by the Sports Minister to renovate the Astro Turf hockey grounds at Reid Avenue.
