We’ll visit India only if foolproof security ensured: PHF boss

FIH World Cup

LAHORE: Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) president Khalid Khokhar on Friday threatened not to send the national team to India next year for the FIH World Cup without assurance of foolproof security and easy procurement of visa.

The PHF president told the media that during recent meetings with FIH President Narinder Batra in Dubai, he had made it clear that Pakistan team should be guaranteed top security during the World Cup in India.

“We had a very good meeting as we conveyed all our concerns to Batra and other FIH member boards. I made it clear that we want assurances from FIH that we will face no problems with procurement of visa and will be given top security during the event,” Khokhar claimed to have told Batra.

“I made it clear that if we face similar problems that our junior team faced in getting visas then we will not send our team to India,” he added. He said Pakistan had conveyed its reservations over the way the Indian High Commission in Islamabad refused to issue visas for the junior team although the PHF had applied for visas on time for Junior World Cup.

“Eventually our team couldn’t go to India and that put our hockey back. But this time we have told the FIH President we want complete assurances and security for the World Cup in India,” he said.

The FIH recently confirmed Pakistan had qualified for next year’s World Cup. “We have suggested that Pakistan and India should play a bilateral series in Muscat next year,” he said. Khokhar said that he had spoken to Batra about the launch of Pakistan Hockey League (PHL) as well.

“We also spoke to Batra and other FIH members about our plans to launch the PHL and sought assurances from them foreign players will be available for the league.“We don’t want a situation where we invest a lot of money in the league and then find that other countries are reluctant to send their players to Pakistan or the FIH is not supporting our league,” Khokhar said.