The Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) is planning on imparting media management training to its players in a bid to avoid scandals and protect its players from being cornered by journalists.
“We will organise a seminar about media management during the National Championship at the end of this month in Faislabad. We will train players on how to handle the media in different situations,” PHF Secretary Asif Bajwa said in an interview to Daily Times.
The move by the federation comes after several players of Pakistan's gold-medal-winning squad at the 2010 Asian Games blasted government authorities after not receiving the rewards promised to them and criticised the policies of the PHF.
In the incident in question, captain Zeeshan Ashraf and goalkeeper Salman Akbar had expressed their concerns over not receiving the prize money announced by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani after the Pakistani team returned from the Asian Games in China.
Bajwa, however, remained diplomatic and claimed that most of the players had either been misquoted or the issue had been blown out of proportion by some sections of the media.
“They don’t know which question should be answered and which should not be. We will teach them how to conduct themselves in front of the media so they can avoid targeted questions,” he said.
