By Susil Premalal

Colombo, Dec. 15 (Daily Mirror) - The Sri Lanka Hockey Federation (SLHF) will receive a compensation of US $ 10,000 from the Asian Hockey Federation (AHF), SLHF President G. Vishvanathan told the Daily Mirror.

The Sri Lanka Women’s Hockey Team qualified to participate in the Asian Games Hockey Tournament in Hangzhou, China in October after they performed well at the Qualifying Tournament held in Indonesia in 2022.

However, the National Olympic Committee of Sri Lanka (NOCSL) and the National Selection Committee (NSC) believed that the Sri Lanka Women’s Hockey Team did not reach the required standard to compete at the Asian Games.

Therefore, the Sri Lanka Women’s Hockey Team was not able to participate at the Asian Games despite reaching the qualifying standard set by the AHF.

In fact, the Sri Lanka Women’s Hockey Team participated in the Asian Games Qualifying Tournament in Indonesia while utilising their own funds.

The AHF realised the unfairness faced by the Sri Lanka Women’s Hockey Team and have decided to compensate the 18 players, who participated in the Asian Games Qualifying Tournament held in Indonesia.

The members of the Sri Lanka Women’s Hockey Team will receive their compensation from the Sports Minister Harin Fernando during a ceremony to be held on December 19 at the SLHF Headquarters in Colombo at 4.00 p.m.

Meanwhile, the Sports Minister is set to participate in an observation tour and explore the depleted Astro Turf hockey grounds at Reid Avenue.

In fact, the Sports Minister has already submitted a Cabinet Memorandum to refurbish the Astro Turf hockey grounds at Reid Avenue.