Pakistan to play Holland to raise funds for flood victims: PHF

KARACHI: The under-fire Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) will hold a fund-raising match against Holland next month in the Netherlands for the people affected by the massive flood in the country.

The announcement came after PHF was criticised by former hockey Olympians and sports bodies for deciding to hold a training camp for the Commonwealth Games in Holland on the advice of foreign coach, Michel Van Den who is from Holland.

PHF secretary, Asif Bajwa said that the flood relief match between Pakistan and Holland would be held sometime between September 13 to 20 in Holland.

“The modalities of the match have been decided in consultation with Netherlands Hockey Federation, Pakistani community and Pakistan Embassy in Netherlands,” Bajwa said.

He hoped that PHF will generate substantial amount from this match and the generated money will be distributed amongst the flood victims fairly.

Asif Bajwa also called on former Olympians and hockey players to also contribute to the flood victims relief fund and added the PHF will contribute a substantial amount to the flood victims from every event and its sponsorship.

Interestingly, the announcement of the charity match came after the PHF was criticised for deciding to hold the national camp in Holland.

Bajwa has tried to dispel the impression that it was just a training camp and said the players would leave for Holland to not only train but also play practice matches against Belgium, Holland and France.

“During its stay in Holland the team will also play practice matches against Poland, Belgium and the host nation therefore, it should be called a training tour not a training camp,” he said.

Ironically the PHF website tells a different story regarding the camp in Holland.

On the home page it is clearly written that the hockey team will hold training camps in two phases. The first phase is underway in Abbottabad while in the second phase the players will have practice sessions in Holland from September 1st.

Former Olympians have said that since the Commonwealth Games are scheduled to be held in India where the weather is warm, there was no sense in holding the camp in Holland and secondly holding a camp outside Pakistan would send a wrong message to the outside world which already is not keen to send teams to Pakistan because of the security situation.

The Commonwealth Games are scheduled to be held in New Delhi, India from October 3rd. The hockey team will travel to China to participate in the Asian Games in November later in the year.