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Our Hockey Team’s Not-so-Impressive Performance

Sardar Khan on 31, Dec 2011 | 5 Comments | in Category: Sports Sprit

Sardar Khan

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Former hockey greats have been criticizing the present set up of Pakistan Federation for the poor show of Pakistan hockey team that appears quite satisfactory to the President PHF QasimZia and Secretary Asif Bajwa.
Surprisingly, The PHF recently held PHF Congress also unanimously decided that it should take the legal action against the elements that are defaming and blemishing PHF by writing baseless letters to higher authorities.

According to media reports PHF has issued legal notices to some 13 Olympians asking them to apologize or be prepared to be sued for Rs.500 Million each. It may be necessary to mention that former Olympians have not only been openly criticizing the poor performance of Pakistan team in the media but they have also been writing letters to Patron in chief, the Prime Minister of Pakistan and other relevant quarters requesting the removal of the present PHF office bearers. Some Olympians reportedly have accused PHF officials of being involved in human trafficking.
While criticizing the PHF and Pakistan team performance is but a routine, one would tend to agree with PHF that such serious allegations of human trafficking should be backed by concrete and undeniable evidence other wise PHF has every right to take up the matter to the court of law which PHF should have done couple of years back when these allegations had cropped up.
The present PHF set up is the luckiest in the sense that it has been blessed with the biggest cash flow every in the history by Govt of Pakistan but the results of Pakistan team have not justified the heavy funding that raises serious questions whether the funds have been spent in right direction or have been misused as being alleged by the former Olympians. The PHF has sucked approximately 700 Millions rupees from Govt and other sponsors in the last three years while according to PHF it needs Rs. 480 Millions with a short fall of Rs.220 Million for the budget of Olympics year of 2012.
Now with this much spending, Pakistan hockey team should have been stood in top 4 teams of the world, had the money been spent wisely and in right direction The performance of PHF is unfortunately not only disgusting, demoralizing and shameful but on top of that the PHF officials are least bothered. They feel satisfied and content with their present lack of status. The only thing that bother the PHF officials is that how to extract more and more funds from Govt and then consume it.

The PHF instead of focusing and improving the Pakistan team’s performance that could have easily kept the critics quite, is now bent on opening new frontiers such as suing their opponents in the court of law. They should do so but not at the expense of PHF funds. The PHF officials, it seems has got unanimous approval for suing their opponents at the expense of PHF coffers. The best option for PHF would be to put its house in order and should spend the money on the welfare of players instead of legal litigation. According to some players, they are yet to receive a part of the prize money of the Asian Games gold medal.

The performance of Pakistan hockey team under the present PHF has been worst ever.For example, Pakistan hockey team had to play world cup qualifying rounds in 2009 in France but that qualification was also not without a controversy where Pakistan surprisingly lost it’s league match to Poland. The PHF secretary Asif Bajwa then told this scribe that losing to Poland was part of strategy and planning as Pakistan wanted to avoid hosts France, who the then team manager Asif Bajwa feared, could beat Pakistan in the final and Pakistan could have been forced to miss berth in the final rounds of 2010 WC. As per this planning, Pakistan after losing to Poland faced Japan in the final and qualified for the 2010 WC. Many eye browse were raised on this statement of Asif Bajaw as this amounted to deliberately losing a match that is against the spirit of the fair play and national interest.

It is also worth pointing out that before the 2010 WC, PHF officials were requesting the global ruling body FIH to increase the number of teams from 12 to 16 so that Pakistan could face no threat of missing the bus for 2010 world cup.
Although, Pakistan qualified for the 2010 WC but since the direction and planning of PHF was poor and ill organized, Pakistan hockey team finished at the bottom of the 12 teams event that is the worst ever showing by Pakistan in history. This result of finishing 12th also gave an idea that why PHF officials were emphasizing on FIH to increase the teams from 12 to 16. Thanks to the FIH who stuck to 12 teams other wise Pakistan team could have ended up 16th of 16 teams.
The whole hockey scenario suggests that PHF and Pakistan team officials have missed the bus for induction of fresh blood and quicker legs for the forthcoming 2012 London Olympics. The PHF and team officials are in no position to induct fresh blood in the team as Olympics in July/Aug 2012 are round the corner so they will have to be content with more or less the same squad and left with no option but to be playing from 8/12 position. The only hope is a miracle that does not happen these days any often.

The PHF officials know that their Titanic is sinking. On the other hand, former Olympians are demanding the removal of the PHF office bearers. In my humble opinion, the former Olympians should withdraw their demand of removal and let the PHF officials continue who have been claiming that Olympic gold was their target. So let see if Pakistan team under this PHF regime can achieve this target or not. In case of failure in 2012 London Olympics to be held in July/Aug, the PHF officials should have the guts and moral courage to leave the office as the worst performer ever.

God save Pakistan Hockey

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