the rise to glory is always a struggle and looking at the series of events the indian hockey team has been subjected to, i think its only making their standing more stronger and support for them, more visible. ..i was there too uncle and like u said its perfect timing on part of the australian director.. times for our boys are trying so hope they hang in stronger. "phir dil do hockey ko"

I agree there is racism and favoritism with respect of making such kind of decision. We haven't heard Pakistani raised objections on such hitting as it is very much evident that, it's unintentional. Even a novice can make out by looking at video, it was unintentional, which he deliberately ignored. I wish ALL THE BEST to INDIA and Australian in next match, to prove who is right.

Fully agree...the action was unintentional on Shivendras'part. Even the field referee ignored it. Think Indian hockey will not reach the stage of BCCI.

It is a known fact that always indians are at the receiving end of these type of actions. We must react strongly to this australian. I think the crowd at Dhyan Chnad stadium should shout at him. This punishment is defenitely to demoralise indian tean ahead of clash with australia. Shame on you bloody australian.

I think Australians have something against Indians...Their cricketers show extra aggression when playing against Indians..Indians are getting bashed up almsot daily in Australia...I think the tournament director (who happens to be an Aussie) is just continuing the tradition...

Let us not forget that the Australians of today have the blood of crooks and criminals running in their veins...When England colonized Australia, they sent prisoners from England to Australia as English jails were overcrowded and could not afford more prisoners....

Probably that explains the way most of the Aussies behave..be it cricket, hockey or otherwise

Let's all watch every hockey match in TV or in field, make FIH rich which will also ensure it is not run by petrol pump owner from pune or lathi wielding policeman from punjab and once the money will come the money will talk. Then it will be followed by election, umpire selection etc. Good Luck India

This suspension is ridiculous. We as Indians should not stand for it. Other teams have gotten away with real assault on the field and no suspension. Our players did not even get a green card. This is plain jealousy.

Indian hockey does not need the clout of BCCI to appeal against a wrong decision. The video footage sould be enough to make a case. I am not a keen follower of hockey, but I know there would be appropriate bodies to which we can appeal against the suspension. What that would do is, it not set aside the suspension, at least put a stay on it till further review, and that would give us a chance to play Shivendra Singh for the matches against Australia and Spain. Then, if the suspension stays, he could sit out for matches against lesser oponents, England and South Africa.

I agree completely! Have seen the news clip over and over again and fail to see the intention as Shivender has been accused of! What I do not undestand is; Does the IHF board consist of just one man or several? And how come what we can see so clearly, none of the board members do?? Why is the Indian Govt. quiet? What happend to the Kalmadis of th world who till yesterday, were announcing and luring hockey players with cash prizes,'IF THEY WIN'? Finally.. why can't this be the Breaking News on your site rather than the silly Filmy Awards??!!!!

I totally agree, this is a ridiculous decision! When we are coming up, we will have such obstacles. This clearly shows that we Indians are coming up, on the right track. If India manage to win today against Australia, that's the gift to the umpire who made this decision.

Best of luck India!

I agree...its a terrible decision...there is no way that deserves a 2 match ban...it seeks of racism.
I hope india thrash the aussies today !

Watched the match live, was as clean as it could have been. No problems for the Pakistan players.Yet before a game against Australia(which they must win), Ken Read imposes a ban on Shiv. Wholly doubt his intentions. But INDIA should fight on and expose him!!

An Australian making a decision that Indian forward cant play against Australia by claiming that his unintentional foul was intentional .... how unbiased is that and we all know what these Aussies are basically when it comes to color

in the absence of BCCI - style clout, can we expect clout from SHIV-SENA style OR Maharashtra Navnirman Sena STYLE clout?

Given that Shivendra Singh is not Marathi Manus, will they still exercise that type of clout?

Instead of crying injustice, India hockey federation shoukd review video footage of other games and collect proof of bias. Only then Indian case would be stronger

As I saw it there was no indication that S. Singh meant to hurt his opponent To me it was very much accidental.
Yes, hockey too , like football ( UK especially) have professional fouls. But this one seems very much a non intentional stick contact with the opponent.
What's the point of reducing the penalty by one match , I wonder ? It's three if it is judged a deliberate ( intended ) foul, or it is judged accidental . In which case the suspension should be dropped totally. ( If using, please use this ( 2nd ) submission. Thanks!)
Reducing the penalty to me seems rediculous!

Brasa's brilliant boys should roast Ric's rowdies
It's time for the gloves to come off. India needs to put the pedal to the metal, pull out all stops and let the Aussies have it with a vengeance! The Poms demonstrated during the last match that Aussies crumble when the stakes are down. ( After they're the men from down under).
Aussies are the sorest loosers a

I think Australians have something against Indians...Their cricketers show extra aggression when playing against Indians..Indians are getting bashed up almsot daily in Australia...I think the tournament director (who happens to be an Aussie) is just continuing the tradition...

Let us not forget that the Australians of today have the blood of crooks and criminals running in their veins...When England colonized Australia, they sent prisoners from England to Australia as English jails were overcrowded and could not afford more prisoners....

Probably that explains the way most of the Aussies behave..be it cricket, hockey or otherwise

When you fight to redeem yourself in this white-world you have to take these things with pinch of salt. Remember, our freedom struggle was also against this very mentality.

I feel the team should go out in this match with a sense to teach the Australians a lesson , as they are out and out trying to create a scene whether by the players on the field or by their countrymen back in Australia attacking the students or the so called officials who are just sitting and making biased judgments. Let the team make a win for Shivendra Singh.

Unbelievable and pure racist! I played hockey for more than 30years and class 1 umpire, this is shocking, especially we have the video evidence. If I was umpiring the game and saw the incident, I would call the player and advice to be careful next time as there were no intention and that's it.Worst case scenario is to give a green card which still would be harsh.

these kind of things are regular with all teams of india,besides fighting the matter at the political level,we should also resolve to improve our level of game,and beat them on the field,nothing would be more better than this

Fully agree. Gloves should come off and someone should actually do the act against Aussies to justify suspension.

No Comments on the funny

This can't get better than this to show world our mettle. Chuk de India!! Let's beat Aussies hands down and show them the door.

I believe this is another ploy by the foreign teams from to keep the Asian hockey in check. First, they changed the rules that suited their players;then they monopolized the world hockey federation and so on. However, this is reasonable to doubt the intentions of the Australian official to pick on an Indian player before they meet Australia. To top it off, there was no complaint from the injured player,team or the umpire. The bias is very obvious in its ugliest form.

So whats new about it? Did you expect a HONEST and POSITIVE discussion from an Ausse? We have to take it in our stide and show them how to PLAY in the right sprit

It's a beautiful feeling with INDIA going great in Hockey. Hockey is a great, wonderful, fast paced game exciting to watch. Our youngsters and children should be encouraged and provided with facilities to play in Schools and Colleges. We also need Hockey bodies coming up at every City to promote and develop out National game.

I really enjoyed watching the India/Pak match and was happy to see our team in a very comfortable position. Lets hope for better performances in next matches. I hope Shivendra's ban will bring the team even closer and they will deliver better performance. Best of luck to entire team.

Even two match ban of Shivender is conspiracy and racism, it should not be tolerated. But then India is a soft state and that is why every country and theirs people use to be daring against India as ,even in barking indians get inhibited and meek.Infact IHF should immidiately ban its technical director, as hatching conspiracy, racism and unjust use of authority is a crime, it has definitely adversly affected the integrity of IHF.

Mr. Ken Read is an Australian. To ensure his country's victory he is playing dirty tricks. When the oponent team is not reasing any objection why he is taking suo moto action. Sound something certainly fishy certainly not expected from a judge? But th basic question is where is JUSTICE? except in BOOKs?

The decision is stupid by any standards. Worse is how can the international federation allow one person to take a call. This makes absolutely no sense. Ideally it should be a panel from representatives from the playing nations. That allows for some bit of fairness. It was funny watching this guy come out and speak as if he has done us a big favor by reducing the ban. Wish se had a way to ban this guy.

How can we expect fair decision from Australian, who is the Director of the tournament and he knows that is India's next match is against Australia. We wish good luck andbest wishes for Indian Team.

That the ruling was unnecessary id quite obvious. There is absolutely no indication that Shivendra did it on purpose. The OZ's are trying to win their match before it is played.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO to you OZ's ... it only shows that you are not confident of your own players.

The OZ official has the gall to state that the action warranted a 4 match ban. This is total BS ...

Post your complaints to FIH here ... http://cdn.worldhockeylive.com/vsite/vform/page/feedback/1,11038,1181-162590-179805-152726-user-feedback-start,00.html

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, and then you win!

Time is ripe for a Chak de India moment. Win today and then rub the salt into the wounds of the Aussie by taking the appeal process forward.

We need to oppose this wrong and malicious decision. A win is the most fitting answer other things can follow.

And Australia lead India 5-1.. One victory against Pakistan and the players are awarded 1 lakh each. As if the only purpose of playing World Cup is to win against Pakistan.

Basically if you see the footage its clear he was playing some ruff hockey today india is beaten by Aussie it shows indian hockey team dont have any standards

I feel that we have to keep a cool head ; perhaps the FIH should have a tourament director from a FIH member country that is not participating in the tournament ; also there should be more non-white officials as is the case currently in cricket .

why aussies have always upper hand in every controvercies. shivendra have paid for being indian.
proxy racism still exist and indian are most affected.
hope india will this wc!

Being an indian and having compassion towards our players, it certainly seems to be racial as the decision is taken by an Australian, certainly looks to be incorrect. I think our team cannot afford to be disappointed by this when we have a long way to go in the tournament. Big names in other sports have been in such controversies earlier(including Sachin tendulkar for ball tampering when he did not intend to do so)I think we have to continue being positve to win the tournament than mourn about these instances.

India is a soft state and that is why every country and theirs people use to be daring against India as ,even in barking indians get inhibited and meek.Infact IHF should immidiately ban its technical director, as hatching conspiracy, racism and unjust use of authority is a crime,

Very parochial and misses the larger point: yes, hockey needs the clout of cricket but not for this reason. It needs it to resurrect the game in every possible way, to make it aspirational for kids, for brands to endorse.

Dear Rajesh, the reference to BCCI makes me think - where was BCCI 10-12 years ago? What kind of clout they had over ICC during 80's? They are there now only because of the 'Money Power' they earned from all we 1 Billion Indians and nothing else. When are we going to give even a tiny bit of that kind of support to our Hockey? May be I am day-dreaming.

I have some doubts here over the counter views. Shivendra is a good hockey player who would certainly know the exact position of his stick at any moment of time while on a game. If not well then he's not a good player, he's just an aggressive one. Only the one hit would be able to figure out whether it was intentionally dangerous or not. And if it was not he would not have been able to complain so spontaneously about it.

The tournament director has acted in bad faith and should be sacked. Although it is always great to have ace players who have the ability to control the results of the match, the Indian team should have fall back plans to deal with the absence of such important players. India should get over with depending on just one person to win matches. This also puts tremendous pressure on the ace players which can affect their ability to play their natural game.

Ausssies are pucca Thieves, that is why England sent their ancestors to their Kala pani. i.e. Australia

kEN rEED IS VERY BIAS AGAIST THE ASIAN TEAM. ITS NOT ONLY HOCKEY BUT IN ALL SPORTS LIKE WISE. i WAS WATCHING THE AUSTRALIAN & iNDIAN GAME THE AUSIS WERE PLAYING KANFU HOCKEY.