LAHORE: The Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) president has formed a three-member inquiry committee to probe the performance of the Pakistan team in the ongoing Asia Cup in Jakarta after the national team had failed to qualify for the next year’s World Cup.

Surprisingly, two members of the probe committee namely Kaleemullah and Nasir Ali are also the national selectors, who gave the nod for the 20-member team after a briefing on the selection of the team that lasted an hour and a half and included head coach Siegfried Aikman. Another member of the inquiry committee is Zahir Shah of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Hockey Association.

Dawn understands the Dutch coach prefers to have full control over team selection due to which there was a rift between him and the selection committee.

The national selection committee did not announce the team, which toured Europe in March, before the Asia Cup. However, for the Asia Cup the team management, headed by Aikman briefed the selectors over his decision of picking the players.

President PHF Brig (retd.) Khalid Sajjad Khokhar, while forming the probe committee demanded a report by June 20 to take action against the responsible personnel.

Pakistan will not be at a World Cup for the second time. They also failed to qualify for the 2014 edition.

Published in Dawn, May 30th, 2022