LAHORE: Despite Pakistan hockey’s Olympic debacle, a number of former Olympians continued to back the federation as they expressed their lack of trust in the five-member probe committee formed by the Inter-provincial Sports Committee on instructions of the prime minister.

At a news conference at the National Hockey Stadium on Monday, Anjum Saeed, Rehan Butt, Malik Shafqat, Tariq Sheikh, Akhlaq Ahmed and Ajmal Khan Lodhi said the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) did all it could but it was lack of support from the government which contributed to its downfall.

Three-time Olympic champions Pakistan failed to make it to the Games for the first time in their history when they failed to secure at least fifth place at the Hockey World League Semi-finals in Belgium last week.

That meant they will miss out on next year’s Olympics in Rio de Janeiro a year on from failing to qualify for the World Cup.

“For the last two years, the PHF hasn’t got any financial grant from the federal government and it went everywhere with a begging bowl in its hands but no one came out to its rescue,” the Olympians said.

“The other participating teams at HWL reached 10-15 days prior to the event but Pakistan, due to the paucity of funds, reached just four days before. The team couldn’t prepare itself well and players were also upset due to the financial problems.”

Of the probe committee, the Olympians questioned its neutrality since two of its members, Shahbaz Senior and Khawaja Junaid, were part of the PHF in the recent past.

“Shahbaz was relieved from his parent organisation [Pakistan International Airlines] on a letter of the PHF where he was shown as advisor of the PHF president Akhtar Rasool while Junaid enjoyed the longest coaching-manager assignment with the PHF from 2010 to 2012 when Akhtar was head coach of the national team,” Akhlaq said. “We request the IPC to nominate other names in the committee.”

Rehan argued that the players’ performance levels drop when they aren’t given the daily allowances and prizes they deserve.

“Those problems have been widely reported but the government has turned a deaf ear,” he said. “The Junior team had to play a tournament in the Netherlands from July 18 before competing in qualifiers for the Junior World Cup in October.

“But the PHF pulled the team out of the tournament in the Netherlands due to financial issues and qualification for the Junior World Cup is unlikely too.”

Anjum reckoned there were too many aspects which played their part in the debacle while adding that the PHF had given a free hand to both chief selector Islah-ud-Din Siddiqi and head coach Shahnaz Sheikh to run the team’s affairs.

“No doubt, Islah and Shahnaz would’ve given it their best shot and now we should wait for the head coach’s report to move forward,” he said. “The PHF is an elected body and has its own system to change the command.”

Akhlaq, meanwhile, warned that the government not to take any decision to impose ad hoc on the PHF, as it would not be acceptable to the FIH and the IOC.

Published in Dawn, July 7th, 2015

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