By Staff Reporter
Pakistan, the multiple-time world field hockey champion, is now considered a constant loser at the game it once ruled, because no one wants to bet on a sport that cannot generate revenues like cricket, a sport official said on Saturday.
“The PHF (Pakistan Hockey Federation) cannot do anything meaningful with a meagre annual funding of just Rs3.5 million, it gets from Pakistan Sports Board, so the nation should not expect the team to make any waves at the upcoming international or regional events,” said Shahbaz Ahmed (Senior), Secretary PHF, while talking to Independent Pakistan.
He said the Pakistan hockey team recently returned from the Europe tour without any improvement as the trip was just for the entertainment of new players.
“It is not necessary to send the team abroad. Instead they need rigorous training sessions at the academies,” he said, criticising the authorities for approving such a wasteful tour.
He said the foreign coach planned this tour to expose new players to the European hockey standards as Pakistan had not hosted any international events in a long time.
“The present PHF administration received a donation of Rs50 million from the army chief for the promotion of hockey not for foreign tour,”
“The present administration is visionless; they have no plans for the future. PHF is rife with nepotism which is a disaster for any game.”
He said field hockey was dying in Pakistan because of the lack of governmental support and funding.
“The government long ago gave a special grant of Rs200 million, which helped PHF to work for the development of hockey at grassroots’ level,” Shahbaz said.
“The special grant was later ceased after a change in the administration as it was issued because of close personal ties of certain officials with the authorities.”
He said presently there was no person in PHF who could get this grant back.
To a question, he said it was very easy to criticise but hard to perform.
“The PHF administration should focus on school and college hockey as this is the only way to get the best talent to represent Pakistan in the world events,” Shahbaz said.
“Asia Cup is next year. It’s a big event as we have to face India in this tournament so PHF administration should focus on it and work hard on training the players according to the international standard,” he said.
He urged the government to own the national game and release the special grant of Rs200 million annually as it was the only way for the PHF to restore the glory in the field of hockey.
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