September 27, 2007	Thursday	Ramazan 14, 1428

NEW DELHI, Sept 26: Indian hockey players are considering going on hunger strike to protest about the rewards being given to the winning cricket’s Twenty20 World Championship squad.

National hockey coach Joaquim Carvalho, whose side retained the Asian Cup title this month, said players from the southern Karnataka state were thinking of staging a hunger strike after the state government announced payments only to the Twenty20 squad members from the region.

“We are not upset or jealous with the cricketers, we are proud of them,” Carvalho said on Wednesday. “But where were the same state governments when our players did the country proud? We’re talking about recognition, not just money. We are not that greedy or jealous but we protest against the treatment being meted out to sports other than cricket.”

The Twenty20 squad, surprise winners of the tournament in South Africa, arrived in Mumbai on Wednesday to a grand victory parade before being showered with cash awards totalling $3 million by the cricket board.

The players have been promised houses by the team sponsor while Yuvraj Singh, who hit six sixes in one over against England, was presented with a Porsche by a senior board official.—Reuters