PHF committee meets sports reporters

KARACHI: PHF’s fact-finding committee held a meeting with sports reporters at HCP on Wednesday and heard their points of view about the reasons why Pakistan’s hockey declined.
PHF has formed this committee to ascertain the reasons behind the failure to qualify for the next year’s Rio Olympics.
The three-member committee headed by Olympians Shahid Ali and including Olympian Mansoor Ahmed and Muhammad Akhlaq listened to the views and suggestions of the sports journalists who observed that there were many reasons behind Pakistan’s failure.
They said the main reasons were lack of funds, lack of international matches before the big events, unemployment of the national team players, closure of departmental teams and want of sponsorship.
They said domestic hockey events had decreased at the grassroots level and hockey had been confined to a few districts of the country.
The youth of the country is not taking interest in the national game, they added.
There is no hockey at educational institutions, at schools or colleges.
The sports journalists pointed out that there was no lack of astro and synthetic turfs in the country. Even blue turfs have been laid in the country but unfortunately neither PHF nor any other institution was organising competitions, a senior sports journalist said.
He said that a dozen astro turfs had been laid in various cities of the country in the recent past. “We could not organise hockey competitions regularly on these synthetic turfs,” he said.
PHF should focus on the marketing side and appoint a professional person to run the game commercially, he added.
The decision not to take three coaches to Belgium although they had developed a winning combination was a major reason why Pakistan failed to qualify for Rio Olympics, the reporters said.
They stressed the need to organise domestic hockey events under flood lights. PHF should organise hockey league in the country, even if foreign players do not come, they said.
Shahid Ali Khan said that Karachi visit was the last leg of the committee. “We have collected the views, proposals and suggestions of all people concerned, including players, management, physical trainers, former Olympians, and sports journalists of Lahore, Islamabad and Karachi,” he said.
“We will start compiling our report from Monday next week. Our committee is working independently,” he claimed.
Shahid said the report would be very vital for the promotion of the game. “All players, officials, former players and other people have spoken to us and given suggestions. We will mention all these things in our final report,” he said.