LAHORE: Pakistan Olympic Association president retired Lt Gen Syed Arif Hasan on Thursday expressed disappointment over the national hockey team’s suspension from the FIH Pro League due to paucity of funds in PHF coffers.

Talking to reporters after distributing prizes at the end of the National Badminton Championship here on Thursday, Arif said the Pakistani athletes already get fewer opportunities to participate in international contests, adding the Pro League suspension would create further distress among athletes.

“Pakistan should grab such [sporting] opportunities as the country is already lagging behind in the world of sports,” he insisted.

It is pertinent to mention here that the Pakistan Hockey Federation failed to fulfil its commitment made with the International Hockey Federation (FIH) of sending the national team to Argentina, Australia and New Zealand to play the Pro

League matches against the hosts scheduled from Feb 2 to 24, because the PHF had claimed it was short of funds.

The FIH, in response, suspended Pakistan, a former four-time World Cup winners, from the inaugural league comprising teams from nine nations.

In the lead-up to the January-June 2019 Pro League, the PHF made a number of appeals to the federal government to release a grant for sending the national team to the league, but to no avail.

Meanwhile, Arif said the South Asian Games, which were to be held in Kathmandu from March 9 to 18, had been postponed, adding fresh dates would be decided during the upcoming meeting of the regional body being held on March 2.

Moreover, there was no positive development in holding the 33rd National Games, allocated to Quetta in 2012. The games were originally scheduled to be staged in 2014 but since then had been postponed on several occasions for different reasons.

“Another meeting of the POA with the Balochistan government will be held next week to make sure the province is ready to hold the national games,” said the POA president.

“We want the Balochistan Olympic Association to remain the Games host and hopefully, this time the province will satisfy the POA delegation about the arrangements,” he added.

To a question, Arif said so far the POA had not come in contact with the Prime Minister’s Task Force on Sports, headed by Ehsan Mani, but hoped that recommendations of the task force would help promote sports culture across the country and those would be taken seriously by the government.

Published in Dawn, February 1st, 2019