Indian set-up slams umpires at World Cup

The Indian team launched a scathing attack on the umpires at the Women's Hockey World Cup on Monday, claiming that they are "incompetent and biased".

A statement signed by Indian team manager Anurita Saini said: "Our team has been constantly under pressure from incompetent and biased umpires which has been directly affecting our performance here in the ongoing world cup.

"Level playing field is the most important of requirements for any team to showcase their potential, which simply did not exist here for us.

"We firmly assert that we have been at the wrong end of many umpiring decisions. We have enough video recordings and statistics to prove beyond doubt our points of view in this respect," the statement said.

The Indian outfit also questioned the arrangement of umpires in the World Cup.

"We object to the fact that though England and Netherlands are in our pool, umpires from the Netherlands and Scotland are posted for our matches," they said in the statement.

The Indians' wrath is supposed to arise from the controversy in their Sunday's game against England, where they were disallowed a goal which they believed should stand.

"We assert that a panel of experts should be constituted to review the goal that was disallowed during half time against England as a special case and the justice to be done to us in the spirit of the sportsmanship and for the glory of hockey," they claimed.

Source: Xinhua