NEW DELHI, Sept. 15 -- Poor administration has left Indian hockey on shaky ground ahead of the Asian Games in Japan, which begin on Saturday. There have been some promising showings lately, but the Hockey India League (HIL) is now staring at an existential crisis. With very little time left before the third edition - scheduled between late December and early February - and a pre-tournament mini-auction looming, franchises are pulling out. "Out of the eight teams, right now, only APL Pipers, Vedanta Kalinga Lancers and Hyderabad Toofans are on board for the HIL. The eighth team - HIL Governing Council team - was anyway a temporary outfit and cannot be a permanent solution," a Hockey India (HI) official told HT on condition of anonymity. The other four teams - JSW Soorma Hockey Club, Accord Tamil Nadu Dragons, Shrachi Bengal Tigers, and Ranchi Royals - have either told Hockey India (HI) they are not taking part (some on paper, some verbally) or are non-committal about participation. The situation is even more dire in the women's HIL where only APL Pipers have confirmed participation, with Ranchi Royals, Shrachi Bengal Tigers and JSW Soorma Hockey Club either being non-committal or informing the federation about their inability to participate. Amidst this chaos, Tirkey on Saturday stripped HI director general RK Srivastava of his powers and on Monday introduced Ranjit Gill as the acting director general in a meeting with sports minister Mansukh Mandaviya. The minister gave a month to form a body and chart out a plan on the sustainability of HIL....