PHF’s poor policies destroy hockey: Khalid

ISLAMABAD: One of the leading defenders Khalid Bashir, who helped Pakistan win the 1994 World Cup in Sydney, lamented Pakistan Hockey Federation’s (PHF) decision to ignore legends who helped the game stand on sound footing in the country.

Talking to ‘The News’ on Sunday, Khalid, who scored more than 160 goals for Pakistan in international hockey, spoke high of the role played by former greats including Manzoor Junior, Hanif Khan, Khalid Mehmood, Manzoorul Hasan, Sohail Abbas and Brig (r) Hamidi in shaping up country’s hockey.

“Though it is always good thing to encourage and support former legend players, it was surprising and shocking that their names are not included in the award list.”

He said that the PHF only believed in pick and choice. “They should have started giving the awards first to those veterans of the game who served country’s hockey in sixties and seventies. But those who are running the show in federation are only there to appease their near and dear ones no matter what role they have played in destroying the Pakistan hockey. I am privy to the role played by some of the recipients in staging coup during the 1996 Atlanta Olympics that ultimately destroyed Pakistan’s chances of winning medals,” he said.

Khalid asked PHF to be realistic in their approach if they want to serve the game in real terms. “I even back and support recent visit of World XI veteran’s team to Pakistan that played two matches with our juniors. But first it is the national team’s performance that matters most.”

He reminded the PHF that Pakistan won the 2012 Asian Games gold and beat Germany in 2012 Champions Trophy on their way to win bronze without any team visiting Pakistan at that time. Pakistan also won the Champions Trophy silver in 2014, beating hosts India and Holland on their way to final.

“Even at that time, no international outfit was ready to tour Pakistan. Still the federation at that time succeeded in keeping team’s standard at par with the best in the world.”

Former Olympian questioned about recent sudden decline in Pakistan team’s standard. “Is the federation ready to share with the nation as what happened during the last two years that resulted in sudden decline in the national team’s standard?

“Two years back we were No 6 in the world. Now when the current PHF bosses took over the ranking fell to as low as No 14 and now No 13. There must be a reason behind this,” he said.

Khalid said that he believed that raising team’s standard and winning medals at international level had never been PHF’s priority in recent past.

“These PHF officials are not interested in improvement. They are just there to have a good time while the sun shines and that is what they are doing right now.”