Hockey federation gets much-awaited grant

ISLAMABAD: As the national hockey team is to embark on the tour to Holland to regain the lost glory in the Champions Trophy, Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) released the much-awaited grant of Rs3.5 million to the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) on Wednesday.

“We have received the amount from the ministry and have released the annual grant to the PHF. The delay in releasing the grant has nothing to do with the PSB. In fact it was the PHF that submitted the required audited documents late and that turned out to be the reason of delay,” Mohammad Azam Dar, PSB Deputy Director General Technical, said.

Apart from the annual grant, the PHF has minted over Rs500 million from the federal government during the last three years without showing any positive results in recent past. Following pathetic show in the Commonwealth Games where the Pakistan finished seventh out of 10-team competition, the Greenshirts failed to qualify for the Youth Olympics after getting defeated by Malaysia with a heavy margin of 12-1. India and Malaysia qualified for the youth global event from the Asian continent.

Now the hockey team is preparing for the concluding Champions Trophy starting in Breda (The Netherlands) from June 23.The selectors will finalise a list of 22 players from which the final selection of an 18-member team would be made after two weeks of training camp.

The PHF this time around has invested heavily on the team’s preparations as besides hiring expensive Dutch head coach Roelant Oltmans and Australian fitness coach Daniel Barry, federation is also getting record finances from the government.

The Champions Trophy is considered as the last chance for the federation headed by Brig (r) Khalid Sajjad Khokhar to see the team performing to the fans’ expectations.Besides playing India on the opening day on June 23, Pakistan are to face Australia on June 24, The Netherlands on June 26. Pakistan’s next opponent would be Argentina on June 28. Pakistan’s last round robin match would be against Belgium on June 29.Positional matches including final are scheduled for July 1. Pakistan team leaves for Holland on June 2.