LAHORE: The managers’ reports about Pakistan’s senior hockey team’s participation in the Commmonwealth Games, Champions Trophy, 18th Asian Games and the Development squads tours will be considered in the upcoming Executive Board meeting of the Pakistan Hockey Federation which will be held here on Saturday.

Pakistan’s performance had been quite unimpressive during the above mentioned tournaments which indeed dismayed both fans and critics at home. Pakistan finished a poor seventh in the Commonwealth Games and finished at the bottom in the six-nation Champions Trophy. Similarly, Pakistan also failed to keep its standing in the Asian region by ending up at a poor fourth place in the recentl Asian Games held in Jakarta.

Moreover, the performance of the development squad during the last tour of Canada was also pathetic as it could not win a single match on the tour.

According to the agenda, the issue of the loan taken for the Asian Games will also come up for discussion. It must be mentione here that all the expenses of Pakistan’s contingent which participated in the Asian Games were borne by Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) and it is inexplicable why the loan was taken in the first place. The discussion will also be held about the letters written by ex-hockey players to FIH and FIA.

The executive board is likely to give the playing rights to Mari Petroleum which has applied for the playing rights.

President, secretary and treasurer of the PHF, secretaries of four provincial hockey associations and two technocrat members including Islahuddin and Ayaz Mahmood are likely to attend the meeting. The third member is Navid Alam who has been sacked from his duties of Director Domestic Development after he had developed serious differences with secretary PHF Shahbaz Senior over various issues.

Published in Dawn, October 6th, 2018