September 11, 2007	Tuesday	Sha'aban 28, 1428

KARACHI, Sept 10: The ongoing All-Pakistan Shaheed-i-Millat hockey tournament became nothing but a joke on Monday when the two scheduled matches were delayed by about two hours owing to poor arrangement on part of the organisers.

The Wapda-Steel Mills fixture, which was scheduled to start at 3.00pm, finally commenced at 5.20pm as the organisers failed to water the pitch, claiming that water sprinklers could not be operated due to low voltage.

“We could not operate the water sprinklers since there was low voltage. The matches have been delayed because of that situation and the fault was rectified after we lodged a complaint with KESC,” said the organising secretary, S.A. Majid.

However, it was slackness on part of the organisers – the Federal Sports Club – that caused the mishap.

As the event, being played under International Hockey Federation (FIH) rules, is a Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) event allotted to the club, the organisers should have made arrangements for standby generators to cover the electricity failure.

“We were told by the jury that there is something wrong with electricity. It all happened in front of PHF officials as Hockey Club of Pakistan administrator Iftikhar Syed was there when it happened. So the federation knows what is happening at this tournament,” said Wapda team manager, Mirza Waheed.

While the match between Wapda and Steel Mills started after inordinate delay, the HBL-PIA tie which should have started at 4.30pm, began at 7.10pm because of poor arrangements.

Tournament director Muhammad Shafique was also seen fuming at workers and the organisers for this chaos and mismanagement.

But there was more chaos in store later as the organisers exchanged hot words. An ugly seen was created when Majid used harsh words against chief co-ordinator Qadeer Ahmad who hurled abuses at him from the sidelines.

The two officials created quite a scene when Majid said that HBL and PIA teams should be introduced to chief guest Wasay Jaleel before the game while Shafique and Qadeer opposed the idea.

Finally, the players were introduced during the break to the chief guest who is the Nazim of Gulshan-i-Iqbal Town. This further delayed the match and the duration of interval had to be reduced to accommodate the game.