KARACHI: The manager of the Pakistan hockey team, former Olympian Hasan Sardar, has called upon the government to release adequate funds to the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) which is facing financial constraints ahead of Asian Games and the World Cup.

“The government should at least release part of Rs200m grant fortwith which it has approved,” he told a hurriedly-called press conference at the Abdul Sattar Edhi Stadium on Saturday. He was flanked by Pakistan team’s head coach Roelant Oltmans and Captain Mohammad Rizwan Sr.

Earlier, the press conference was convened on a short notice at the Islahuddin-Dr M.A. Shah Academy on Friday, but upon reaching there the reporters were told that it has been put off for a day at the request of some television channels.

Sardar, who has returned from the US recently, said Pakistan is targeting to strike gold in the Asiad in order to earn a direct ticket for the 2020 Olympics and make it to the World Cup semi-finals, but cautioned that all exercise will be futile if funds are not released on time.

He said the players were going through the agony of financial problems which were haunting them since they had to look after their families. “How will they perform when they are not being paid allowances in addition to the job problems?” he asked.

Hasan dispelled the impression that there’s no hockey talent in the country but regretted that the old system of inter-school, inter-collegiate, inter-varsity, sports quota in admissions at the government colleges and for jobs in the departments had ceased to exists. “I’m a product of the same system,” he remarked.

The former Olympian was critical of the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB), Punjab Sports Board and the Sindh Sports Board for not playing as effective a role in promotion of sports as they used to in the past.

Expressing satisfaction on the team’s performance in the Breda Champions Trophy he said the greenshirts 4-1 success against the Olympic Champions Argentina was no mean achievement and a true indicator that their graph is going up.

“We had not gone to Breda to win the title and the results against other outfits shows that the team had lost by narrow margins after dominating most part of play,” he maintained.

Citing examples, he said Pakistan lost to Australia 1-9 last year while at Breda the margin was reduced to 1-2 with the greenshirts taking lead in the ninth minute through Aijaz Ahmed.

Similarly, he said Pakistan took the lead over Belgium twice in the league, courtesy Aleem Bilal, who scored a brace through penalty corners before going down 2-4.

To a question, he said the fitness level of the team had improved as well as other areas of play.

To another question about not inviting Khizer to the camp, Hasan said the player was given a chance but he failed to prove his mettle.

Answering questions, team’s head coach Oltmans said though the boys were showing progress, there’s still room for improvement.

He sounded confident that the greenshirts will be back at top level if they maintained a consistent performance.

Referring to Pakistan’s 4-0 whitewash against India in the opening match, he said the former were in two goals arrears until the 54th minute when change of goalkeeper cost two more goals in a short span.

He said he was aware of the high emotions attached with the Indo-Pak clash.

Asked how he rates Pakistan team for the Asian Games, Hasan said: “It will win inshallah.”

Skipper Rizwan Sr, speaking on the occasion, said he was playing league in Holland for the last few years where a player earns up to Rs 0.3m per season while in the Indian league, a player gets approximately Rs 9m “which is way beyond our imagination.”

“If the player is mentally strong having no worry on his mind he will give cent percent performance,” he added.

He requested the government to release funds so that the players get their dues before embarking to Indonesia for Asiad next month so that they could put in their best at the mega event.

Published in Dawn, July 22nd, 2018