KARACHI: The Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) has

appointed an upcountry journalist as a technical official in the ongoing 33rd National Junior Hockey Championship which is in progress at the Hockey Club of Pakistan Stadium here.

The Lahore-based journalist is entitled to get return railway fare and daily allowance at the rate of Rs750 from day before start of the championship and after the event.

Despite the presence of a large number of PHF officials, including the secretary Rana Mujahid, severe discrepancies in compiling the official results have become a norm and are going unnoticed.

By Monday, two matches were decided on penalty shootout but the official score sheet didn’t mentioned the players who scored or missed the penalties.

The scribes were taken aback after contrasting results were released by the PHF on Monday.

The official result sheet showed Railways beat Punjab Yellows 1-0 whereas in the email it was given that Railways beat Punjab Whites 3-1.

According to the draws, Punjab Yellows have been placed with Railways, Army and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in Pool ‘C’ and not Punjab Whites as mentioned in the email.

Another score sheet showed Customs beat Sindh Whites 5-4 but the tally of goals revealed the former had scored six goals as against three by their opponents.

It is pertinent to mention that this is not the only case and the covering journalists have to come across similar things in almost all sporting events on a regular basis.

Published in Dawn, May 20th, 2014