Dubai: Narinder Batra became Saturday the first non-European president of the International Hockey Federation (FIH) after he was elected to the top post by an overwhelming margin during the penultimate day of the 45th FIH Congress, here.
Batra, who is the president of Hockey India (HI), defeated David Balbirnie of Ireland and Australia’s Ken Read to become the 12th FIH president – the first Asian and Indian to be elected to the chair in the world body’s 92-year-old history.
Batra got 68 votes in his favour while Balbirnie and Read managed 29 and 13 votes respectively. Out of 118 voters, 110 voted while only eight abstained.
It has been learnt that Batra, who was the official candidate of Asian Hockey Federation (AHF), enjoyed majority support from Asian, African and Central American nations during the voting process. His tenure will begin immediately which means he will have to resign from his position as HI president.
“I feel extremely honoured and I look forward to lead the FIH global hockey revolution,” Batra said while addressing the media after his victory.
“My commitment is to hockey because I love the sport. I want to take hockey across the globe because now everything is calculated by reach and revenue. My priority will be to widen the base and extend geographical boundaries.
“To achieve that we can’t restrict hockey to just 10-12 nations. Hockey has to spread, hockey has to grow across the globe,” the newly-elected president added.
Press Trust of India