Cancellation of World Series a setback for Pak hockey: Fahmida

ISLAMABAD: As Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) meets the dead-end on administrative front following cancellation of World Hockey Series event, Minister for Inter Provincial Coordination (IPC) Dr Fahmida Mirza termed it a setback for the game development leaving a big question mark over federation’s ability to deal with international bodies.

The event that was scheduled to be held from September 26-30 in Lahore was cancelled after almost every participating team refused to travel to Pakistan.Talking to The News Wednesday, Dr Fahmida Mirza said that federation’s failure to hold the international event has brought bad name to Pakistan. “Look it is federation job to ensure holding such events. It is federation that keeps liaison with other federations and international bodies. The government has nothing to do with it. We are there only for their support which we have been doing for the past so many years. Cancellation of the event is very unfortunate,” she said.

IPC Minister said that federations were meant to protect the image of the nation and that was only possible by developing good relations with international bodies. “All federations must revisit their priorities. These federations must do what these are supposed to do,” she said. After failing to perform in all international hockey events during the last three years, the federation has also failed on administrative front also by failing to convince international events to travel to Pakistan for the event. Barring Kazakhstan all other participating teams of the World Series event have refused to travel to Pakistan for the Tournament forcing the International Hockey Federation (FIH) to cancel the event. Oman, Qatar, Bangladesh Sri Lanka and even Afghanistan federation has expressed inability to send teams to Pakistan on one pretext or the other. Apparently, these federations have termed lack of finances and lack of security as reasons for not travelling to Pakistan.

When the event was allotted to Pakistan almost six months back, the PHF officials were seen boasting their achievements of attracting international teams without realizing that it required good liaison and continuous support with FIH and Asian Hockey Federation (AHF) to ensure the event in Pakistan. Though the AHF has already distant itself from the event, cordial relations between the PHF-AHF could have proved beneficial.

PHF is under considerable pressure these days as back to back poor performances at international level have already demoralized officials to the extent that most of them have started making one excuse or the other for such a pathetic show. Following last finish in the Champions Trophy, the national outfit finished seventh in Commonwealth Games and fourth in Asian Games held recently in Jakarta (Indonesia). Pakistan has also failed to earn a place in Youth Olympics behind Bangladesh and India.

Teams reluctance to travel to Pakistan for World Series is yet another blow to PHF management. It is yet to be seen as what measures the PHF would take to convince the FIH to reorganize the event on any later stages in Pakistan.