LAHORE: The criminal negligence and delay on part of the Sports Board Punjab (SBP) in installing a blue astroturf at the National Hockey Stadium have minimised the chances of Pakistan hockey team to have any practice sessions on the new surface ahead of the London Olympics, set for July-August.

The government of Punjab had issued a special grant of Rs 35 million to the SBP to lay down the new turf at the National Stadium which could greatly help the national team to acclimatise itself with the blue surface which will be the standard for all hockey matches in the upcoming Olympic Games in London.

But despite the grant getting released almost a year ago, the SBP has committed one blunder after another to seriously jeopardise Pakistan’s chances of making use of the new surface ahead of the Games.

For several months since the release of the grant, the SBP could not finalise the deal with any of the contractors.

Despite that, the PHF was hoping that the SBP will soon fulfil its promise of laying the turf by May 15 which may still give some time to the national players to practice on the blue surface.

But the SBP was not able to monitor the work regularly and then quietly extended the deadline till the end of June as the work at the National Stadium continued at snail’s pace.

The situation turned ugly on Monday when the SBP, realising that the project could even go beyond June, was forced to issue a show-cause notice to the contractor.

“The Sports Board Punjab has issued a show-cause notice to the installer of the blue turf at the National Hockey Stadium for the slow pace of work and in breach of the tender notice and tender documents,” said a press release issued by the SBP quoting director sports Aamir Jalil.

“We are not satisfied with the pace of work and the way things are being done to lay the blue synthetic turf and that is why we have issued a show-cause notice to the installer, Swallow International.”

It must be mentioned here that while the company assigned to install the turf was given the contract in March 2012, there are reports that their shipment from South Korea is unlikely to arrive any time soon and that may spoil the situation even further.

According to the initial programme, the new pitch was to be laid well before the start of the home series against China, which was held in December 2011.

But instead of focusing on the task, the SBP engaged itself in hosting Chief Minister Punjab Sports Festival and also held its opening ceremony at the National Hockey Stadium which rendered the existing turf in a very bad shape and compelled the PHF to shift the camp to Islamabad.