New Delhi, Apr 23: Barely a fortnight after taking over as the Sports Minister, M S Gill on Wednesday provided a new lease of life to men's hockey by upgrading it to 'Priority' category, along with seven other disciplines.

The development came as a surprise as the game has been in the news for all the wrong reasons of late, the bribe scandal involving K Jothikumaran being the latest in the long list of controversies plaguing the establishment.

After a string of flop shows, men's hockey was downgraded to the 'General' category in June last year and the game plummeted to new low with the team failing to qualify for the Beijing Olympic Games, which meant India would not feature in Olympic hockey event for the first time since their 1928 debut.

Apart from men's hockey, football, swimming, basketball, cycling, volleyball, school games and university games were also promoted to the 'Priority' category.

Making it clear that the Ministry would not be silent spectator to hockey's decline, Gill also named Ajit Pal Singh and Zafar Iqbal as Government Observers in the Selection Committee of the Indian Hockey Federation, replacing R S Bhola and Rupa Saini.