Hockey players unpaid daily allowances for 90 days

ISLAMABAD: The national hockey players are still waiting for their daily allowances, which have been pending with the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) for the last three months.

A leading national player who approached ‘The News’ on Thursday blamed PHF for making lame excuses on the issue.“That is why our hockey is in shambles. If the PHF fails to arrange daily allowances for players, how they can go on to improve team’s plight and how youngsters could get attracted towards the game,” the player questioned.

He said that daily allowances to the tune of over rupees half a million of each hockey player and officials are pending with the federation.“Around Rs10 million in all is pending with PHF in daily allowances, which have not been paid to the officials and team members since the Asia Cup held in Bangladesh. At the end of Asia Cup, we attended camps for Australian tour and played exhibition matches in Australia also. No dallies have been paid to us since the Asia Cup camp,” he said.

The daily allowances, that actually become bread and butter for the players in the wake of no contract system, occupied minds of players. “Besides the daily allowances that we receive within Pakistan, we are also entitled to 150 dollars per day per player outside Pakistan. If you combine all dailies including the days of camp and during the Asia Cup engagements in Bangladesh, every player owes PHF almost Rs600,000.

We have received only Rs100,000 and the rest of amount is still pending with the federation. “Players always look towards allowances as they have no other reasonable source to meet daily expenses,” one of the senior members of the team told ‘The News’ on eve of team’s departure to Australia.

He said the PHF had been given almost Rs580 million by the federal and provincial governments during the last two years. “We know that the PHF kitty is full of money, still I don’t know why no heed has been paid in this regard. We should have the amount before our going to Australia. Every player has his own domestic problems and as such need to settle the things before embarking on such tour.”

Manager Farhat Khan, before team’s departure to Australia last month, hoped that the federation would soon submit the balance in players’ account.“Brig (r) Khalid Sajjad Khokhar promised to give dailies to players soon. I hope that same would be done at the earliest to put players in right state of mind for the exhibition event.”

However, even after the lapse of one month no dailies have been paid to players. This is despite the fact that the Sindh government has recently given Rs100 million as donation to PHF. “Where this entire amount is going,” the player questioned.