LAHORE, Aug 30 With the latest episode of match-fixing in Pakistan cricket starting to brew, Olympians Shahnaz Sheikh and Shahbaz Senior, while expressing their distress over the scandal, advised the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) to be more watchful to keep this menace away from the country's national sport.

“Pakistan has been hit by the worst ever scandal [of match-fixing in cricket]. May God help us in coming out of it safe and sound,” Shahnaz, while referring to the latest match-fixing story that has hit Pakistan cricket team currently in England, said while talking to Dawn on Monday.

“I would like to caution the PHF that it must take some solid steps to avoid such happening in hockey also, as something wrong was suspected when Pakistan lost the opening match of the last World Cup to arch-rivals and hosts India by 4-1,” Shahnaz added.

“Such a big loss was not expected by anyone and later Pakistan finished at the bottom of the 12-team tournament. Even the hard critics of the PHF were not expecting Pakistan to claim the 12th spot but that happened, raising many eyebrows,” Shahnaz stated.

Meanwhile, Shahbaz Senior also urged the federation to be more watchful towards the boys as the money-making trend could also hit the hockey players.

“As everyone has noticed that many [hockey] players now usually prefer to play leagues while ignoring the national team assignments and this shows the money-making trend is also growing in hockey,” he said.

He further said the players had been complaining about their low standard of living as compared to the cricketers, adding they had been demanding regular jobs and other benefits.

He emphasised the government should take effective measures to eradicate the match-fixing evil from sports, insisting players going abroad for national duty are regarded as country's ambassadors and any wrong action from them could damage the country's image.

They demanded that the government should punished harsh all those who were involved in this tragedy.