IT IS rare for Pakistan hockey to get the kind of extensive coverage in the national print media that it has been getting in the last few days. Most of it, however, has not reflected positively on the game, as the coverage has revolved round the issue of disciplinary action that needs to be taken against Sohail Abbas and Mohammad Waseem, who, along with Nadeem ND, had left the country without proper PHF permission. Nadeem had returned and duly faced disciplinary action, but the cases of Sohail and Waseem are still pending. And what should have been a simple case of punishing the indisciplined, has now become a matter of great controversy.
The magnitude of the row can be gauged by the fact that it has already gobbled up the coach, Shahnaz, the news of his resignation coming in just as was I scribbling these lines. What exactly it is that has caused his resignation, I don’t know, as press reports have carried various accounts. But my gut feeling is that the whole controversy in the end would benefit the indisciplined players who, I am afraid, would get selected for the Champions Trophy.
I don’t find any reason not to believe that whatever the PHF has decided, or may decide in the future, is, and will be, in the best national interest. But I do struggle to understand why the services of the Disciplinary Committee have not been used by the PHF management to settle the issue. After all, it is the in-built PHF mechanism to deal with such cases.
Wapda, or for that matter any independent entity, is not supposed to carry out such investigations. Wapda could, and should, have conducted an enquiry if the players had missed out on some domestic engagements. But in the present case, the players failed to report on national duty, and, as such, it is the PHF itself that should set in motion its own mechanism and machinery, and the ideal first choice under normal circumstances would have been the Disciplinary Committee. Only the PHF bosses would know why they have decided not to do the obvious. Only they would know because only they have access to the full picture. We in the media can only do some guessing.
There are suggestions in hockey circles that all this controversy, and the confusion surrounding it, will actually help the players concerned to get away with their act of severe indiscipline, and that they would ultimately find themselves on the plane that would carry the national team abroad on its Champions Trophy assignment. If that happens, it would be a sad day for Pakistan hockey. Rewarding indiscipline is the easiest recipe for long-term disaster. My hope is that the PHF would not let it happen. Let’s wait and watch.
IT IS rare for Pakistan hockey to get the kind of extensive coverage in the national print media that it has been getting in the last few days. Most of it, however, has not reflected positively on the game, as the coverage has revolved round the issue of disciplinary action that needs to be taken against Sohail Abbas and Mohammad Waseem, who, along with Nadeem ND, had left the country without proper PHF permission. Nadeem had returned and duly faced disciplinary action, but the cases of Sohail and Waseem are still pending. And what should have been a simple case of punishing the indisciplined, has now become a matter of great controversy.
