Financial crunch could keep Pakistan out of Azlan Shah Cup
The secretary of the PHF, Asif Bajwa, made it clear that Pakistan was facing a race against time and that the national team faced the possibility of sitting out the upcoming tournament. -Photo by AFP
Pakistan’s participation in the upcoming Sultan Azlan Shah Cup in Malaysia next month remains doubtful after the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) said it was facing a financial crunch.
The junior team’s tour to Singapore may also be scrapped unless the government releases the promised funds, PHF’s secretary Asif Bajwa told PTI.
According to Bajwa, the federation was promised 100 million rupees in funds by the federal government which were yet to be released, adding that the national body was surviving mainly on grants.
“The Punjab government had also promised us 30 million rupees which is yet to reach us,” Bajwa said.
The secretary added that the President of the PHF, Qasim Zia, a former Olympian and a sitting member of the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party government, had used his political clout to get around 850 million rupees by way of grants in the last five years.
“We have also supplemented our revenues by getting sponsorship but it is an expensive sport and we spend millions on one foreign trip. We are also not able to make more money because of the refusal of foreign teams to visit Pakistan because of security reasons,” the former Olympian said.
Bajwa made it clear that Pakistan was facing a race against time and that the national team faced the possibility of sitting out the upcoming tournament
“We are expecting the grant from the Punjab government in two or three days while we have written several times for the grant from the federal government.”
The shortage of funds had also left the players uneasy who, according to Bajwa, were already anxious because the cash prizes promised to them by the Prime Minister after winning the Asian Champions Trophy were yet to be given to them.
I think we should allow and encourage our players to go abroad in European leagues and in Australia to play and learn and additionally have financial security.
Only through good achievement in international tournaments on regular bases can we also manage to attract sponsorship deals.
Hope that Pakistan hockey does manage to take part in the upcoming tournaments and also keeps showing good results.
All the best.
It is such a bad news that the govt is not spending money for sporting events.
one must know that the sports is not just winning and losing. It creates cultural ties
the sports people are the real ambassadors.
Regds / Jeyaraj – India
Sad so sad
Shame on PHF and the government. Such a pity! Our national sport should be beggary instead of hockey. The lows we see as a nation never fails to surprise me.
They should give up hockey and take up cricket! I hear there is a lot of money to be made in cricket.
is this what we have come down to? so financially bust that can’t afford to send our national team of our national game to an international tournament. democracy is the best revenge,indeed ppp
You can get loan from CRICKET STARS,LIKE ASIF,AMIR OR BUTT.THEY HAVE NO PROBLEM WITH MONEY.They can finance the whole tournament.
This apparent shortage of funds for Hockey, which is apparently our national sport, at the time when Cricket team is on a long tour of South Africa is disheartening to say the least.
We need to improve our audit since like every other govt. faliuer we know where the money is drained. Although I agree we need to do more for the game and for the players but do not expect any thing from the Governement of Pakistan.