Pak Olympians unwilling to work in tandem with PHF secy

KARACHI: Differences in the Pakistan hockey ranks became quite visible on Friday during the hearing of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Sports.

The former hockey Olympians and the current management of the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) had a showdown with the Olympians making it clear that they were not willing to work with the federation till Asif Bajwa remain the secretary of the body.

In fact, former Olympian Samiullah insisted that PHF must have an “honest secretary”.

The hearing was held to discuss the national team’s poor performance in the recently concluded Commonwealth Games held in India, where Pakistani hockey team finished sixth after losing their play-off match to South Africa.

Even in the World Cup held earlier this year in India, Pakistan finished last (12th).

Former Olympians and captains held the poor administration of the PHF and the incompetence of Bajwa responsible for the declining standard of hockey in Pakistan.

Bajwa complained that some former Olympians had used abusive language and made some remarks against him and the PHF.

But another former captain Islahuddin clarified that “no abusive language was ever used and if Pakistan lost to South Africa, the former players had every right to criticise the PHF.”

However, the chairman of the National Assembly committee, Iqbal Muhammad Ali requested the former Olympians to put their campaign to change the PHF set up on hold until the Asian Games.

“The PHF has said that it has been preparing the team to win the gold medal at the Asian Games. So, I think, all of us should support the federation and the team until the Games and see what happens,” he said.

He also urged the former Olympians to stop giving statements till the Asian Games were over.

“If the team fails to win the gold medal at the Asian Games, this committee will itself carry out a thorough post-mortem and recommend changes,” Iqbal said.

Qasim Zia, the president of the PHF, told the Committee that the federation was paying 10,000 euros monthly to Dutch coach Michel Van Den and had signed a contract with him till 2012.

“But if he fails to deliver in the coming months then we have the option of changing the coach,” Zia said.

Bajwa also cast aside the claims that the PHF was getting a lot of grants and financial help from the government because Qasim Zia, a senior member and leader of the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party, was the PHF President.

“Until now the government has given us grants of 140 million rupees while this year we have received nothing,” he said.