Sami rejects PHF offer to head probe committee

ISLAMABAD: Former Olympian Samiullah rejected offer to head the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) inquiry committee to probe the worst ever performance of national team in the World Cup.

Pakistan finished 12th and for the first time in the history have failed to win a single game in the mega event.

“There is no wisdom in heading a committee unless and until all the PHF officials resign. Such inquiry can only be conducted if the government decides to disband the PHF. You can’t constitute inquiry committee to decide your own flaws and fate. It is nothing less than a joke,” Samiullah told a messenger who carried the PHF message to the former great.

He called on the government to conduct its own inquiry in partial manner. “Unless the government intervenes I would not become part of any PHF inquiry. Such cosmetic inquiries have already destroyed Pakistan hockey in the past,” he said.

A three-member committee headed by aging Rashid Junior and included Shahid Ali Khan and Manzoorul Hasan has been formed by the PHF President Brig (r) Khalid Sajjad Khokhar to look into the worst ever performance where Pakistan scored just two goals and conceded 12. Pakistan even finished behind China and France — ranked much lower to the Greenshirts.