ISLAMABAD, Nov 18: Pakistan Hockey Federation’s (PHF) failure to coordinate with the Foreign Ministry led to the abrupt cancellation of the five-Test hockey series, federation sources told Dawn on Tuesday.

The Indian government stunned PHF when it called off its junior hockey team’s tour at the very last minute.

The PHF sources said if the federation had taken Ministry of Foreign Affairs into confidence over the planning of the series, the government officials could have salvaged the contest. “The PHF failed to liaise with the Foreign Ministry in time which was a major mistake on part of their top brass and eventually cost us the series.”

Most of the arrangements for the high-profile event were handled by the district government or the provincial security departments which was not a wise move since no major federal department was involved, the sources added.

The PHF, the sources said, made a desperate move on the last day as they contacted their Patron-in-Chief, the Prime Minister, at a rather late juncture when not much could be done to save the series.

About the security for the event, a PHF official said: “In Karachi it was the Inspector General Police and other provincial security departments involved for the contest but I didn’t see any officials from Federal Interior Ministry or the Foreign Office in any of the PHF meetings.”

Federal Secretary Sports, Ashraf Khan when contacted said: “Sports Ministry’s work is to handover an NOC to PHF so they can hold the hockey series. But the PHF needed to get another NOC from the Interior Ministry for security clearance.”

PHF President Qasim Zia, however, insisted: “Every concerned ministry was in the loop from day one for the junior hockey series.

Our Foreign Secretary had even talked to his Indian counter part so they were aware of the developments.”

Qasim asserted that the PHF and other authorities were well prepared here but the Indian government pulled off the plug for reasons best known to it.