PHF threatens to pull out of quadrangular
Sunday, December 07, 2008
By By Khalid Hussain
KARACHI: Two days after showing keen interest in crossing the border next month to play in a four-nation tournament in India, Pakistani hockey officials on Saturday threatened to pull out of the contest over a “negative attitude” of the Indian government and media towards Pakistan.
Asif Bajwa, the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) secretary, told ‘The News’ from Lahore that the PHF is rethinking its stance towards India after observing the extremely negative propaganda generating from India against Pakistan.
Bajwa, a former Olympian, said that Pakistan will monitor the situation in India for a few more days before taking a final decision on whether to send their hockey team for the four-nation hockey tournament to be played in Chandigarh and Jalandhar in January-February next year.
The relations between Pakistan and India have been tense since last week when the Indian government pointed the finger of suspicion at Pakistan following deadly terrorist strikes in its financial hub — Mumbai — that left almost 200 people dead. The Pakistani government has strongly denied the accusations.
Pakistan, desperate for international hockey action, had confirmed their participation in the quadrangular event that is scheduled to feature world and Olympic champions Germany, the Netherlands and hosts India.
However, Bajwa hinted that the PHF will be forced to pull out of the tournament if the strained relations between Pakistan and India fail to improve in the coming days.
“We are very concerned over the Indian government’s decision to blame Pakistan for what happened in Mumbai,” said Bajwa, also a former national coach.
“We really want to keep hockey ties alive with India but will have to rethink our stance in the current scenario. If the Indian government and the country’s media continued to hurl accusations at Pakistan then we will decide against sending our players to India in accordance with the public sentiments here,” he stressed.
Bajwa said that the PHF doesn’t want to expose its players to any unnecessary risk by sending them to India in such a tense situation.
ìThere is a possibility that the Indian public might get influenced by the false anti-Pakistan propaganda being spread by their media. That is why we fear that our players might be exposed to unnecessary risks in India,î he pointed out.
The PHF secretary said that Pakistan want to keep sports away from politics because that would be deadly for sports in the region.
Pakistan had agreed to play in the India quadrangular even though the Indian government had blocked its junior hockey team’s tour of Pakistan to play five Test matches last month.
The cash-starved PHF claimed it suffered losses of around six million rupees because of the last-minute cancellation of the series.