Shahnaz resigns, saying players not paid properly

KARACHI: The inquiry committee constituted by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to probe the failure of Pakistan to qualify for the Rio Olympics 2016 has called PHF president, secretary, the team’s chief coach and captain on Thursday (tomorrow) in Islamabad, ‘The News’ has learnt.
The national team reached home from Belgium on Tuesday.
Chief coach Shahnaz Sheikh resigned as soon as he reached the homeland and said if PM Nawaz Sharif had done six or eight months ago what he now has done, the situation could have been much better.
He told ‘The News’ the Green-shirts had been facing financial problems for a long time, playing for the country without salaries, jobs and other financial benefits. “They didn’t even receive their daily allowance during the Korea visit and only received 20 dollars instead of 150 during the World Hockey League semifinal in Belgium,” he said.
He disclosed that players had boycotted the Australian tour, as they were not being paid daily allowance, but later agreed when it was decided that they would get half of it.
“If our players do not play professional leagues in foreign countries they and their families will die of hunger,” he said.
He said that he would inform the inquiry committee about the reasons of the failure to reach Olympics.
Shahnaz said that the same players played well in the Asian Games and Champions Trophy and won silver medals when facilities were provided to them.
“But in case of Olympics qualification rounds, we did not have proper planning and training,” he said.
“I submitted a 150-day training programme to PHF that included 30 to 35 international matches before the qualifying rounds but unfortunately nothing of the sort was done. In fact, our training camp was closed just before the Belgium tour due to the financial crisis in the PHF,” he said.
He added that around eight players were injured during the training session in Islamabad due to bad condition of the turf.
Shahnaz said that he would appeal to the PM, who is the patron in chief of PHF, to call all Olympians, listen to their proposals, and take concrete action with consensus of all the hockey lovers.
“Replacing someone and installing another one is not the solution,” he said.
He claimed that no single group of people could bring out the country of the crisis.
He said that late arrival in Belgium was also a reason behind “our poor show”.
Shahnaz said that missing ratio of the players during the competitions was the reason of the bad performance in the event.
He said the performance of the players could not be improved until financial situation was made better.
Pakistan captain Muhammad Imran said that he had not decided to retire. He said that he would also meet the inquiry committee on Thursday.