LAHORE: Former Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) secretary retired Col Mudassar Asghar on Wednesday called for the current heirarchy of country’s hockey body to step down as their reign has coincided with the worst period of the national game.

“The president retired Brig Khalid Sajjad Khokhar and secretary Shahbaz Senior should step down as they have no plan or vision to revive the game,” Mudassar told Dawn. “Despite several changes, none of their moves have improved the game and that shows their aptitude.”

“We’ve had a series of poor results this year, finishing seventh in the Hockey World League Semi-finals in England and third at the Asia Cup in Bangladesh before the disgrace at the four-nation International Festival of Hockey in Australia this month.”

Pakistan finished fourth in the four-nation tournament in Melbourne, losing all four matches while also suffering their worst-ever defeat — 9-1 to hosts Australia. New Zealand and Japan were the other teams at the tournament.

“The World Cup isn’t far away and if the same people are at the helm, we shouldn’t expect better,” added Mudassar.

Pakistan only qualified for the World Cup since the International Hockey Federation (FIH) increased the number of participants from 12 to 16 for next year’s edition in India.

“The government should take interest in the hockey affairs and should ask what the current PHF setup is doing,” Mudassar said, while lamenting that despite sending the U-19 team for a four-month training camp in Australia the PHF failed to field the team at the Junior Azlan Shah Cup.

Before that, the PHF had also failed in fielding the team at the World Cup in India due to late submission the visa application and Malaysia were included in Pakistan’s place by the FIH at the eleventh hour.

The PHF blamed Indian visa authorities and Hockey India (HI) responsible for the fiasco but were left red-faced when HI put up a strong-worded letter on its official website asking for a public apology for leveling baseless allegations at it.

Published in Dawn, November 16th, 2017