Former players want government to save hockey

KARACHI: Former Pakistan hockey players and Olympians on Saturday demanded that the federal government save the national sport from extinction.

Addressing a press conference at the Abdul Sattar Edhi stadium here Saturday, former captain Nasir Ali, Kashif Jawad, Mumtaz Haider, Safdar Abbas, Saleem Sherwani and Muhammad Ali said that personal grudge is destroying the national game.

“Those who are criticising just want to grab top positions in the PHF,” Nasir said. “They want power under the guise of criticism on the team’s recent debacles,” he said.

“We have organised this press conference not to defend or support the PHF. We are only here to support the sport, which has reached the point of disaster especially after the Greenshirts were thrown out of the FIH Pro League,” he added.

Pakistan are currently at 12th spot in the world rankings. And they will likely slip further to their lowest ranking in history when the new rankings are announced.

“The PHF president even arranged funds himself for team’s participation in the last two tournaments,” Nasir said. He demanded the Prime Minister Imran Khan, also Pakistan’s World Cup winning cricket captain, to intervene and resolve the issues plaguing national hockey.

Safdar said that despite Pakistan’s poor performance in the Hockey World Cup 2018, the PHF restored several domestic hockey teams and established four or five new teams.

“The PHF also provided more than 100 jobs to players who have played hockey at the international or domestic level,” he added.

Kashif warned that the current pool of 40 to 50 youngsters might be the last bunch of talented players and they must be groomed before it is too late.

The former players demanded the Minister of IPC Fehmida Mirza to help the PHF overcome the ongoing crisis and also conduct an audit.