LAHORE: The newly-elected chief exectutive of Asian Hockey Federation (AHF) Tayyab Ikram said on Tueday that regular bilateral series between Pakistan and India is vital for the revival of hockey in Asia.

Tayyab, the first ever Pakistani national to head the AHF, was speaking at a grand reception held in his honour by the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) here. “Until the two neighbouring countries start playing again on a regular basis, the revival of hockey in Asia cannot be ensured,” he said. “Germany won the London Olympics hockey title in 2012, but they could not provide sufficient funds to its hockey and just two years after that, they could not figure in the World Cup,” he pointed out.

The AHF official also stressed upon the PHF to improve its domestic competition by organizing national level tournaments both at the junior and senior levels. He added that besides revival of international hockey it was his task to uplift the game in Pakistan.

PHF honours Tayyab Ikram at grand reception

Earlier, PHF president Akhtar Rasool while addressing the gathering welcome the appointment of Tayyab Ikram as the AHF chief. “It is a great honour for Pakistan and a moment of pride for the country that a Pakistani has been elected as the first ever chief executive of the AHF, a post which was recently introduced in place of secretary general,” he said.

It may be mentioned here that in the last AHF elections held in Kuala Lumpur on Aug 30, three Pakistanis Tayyab Ikram (chief executive), Akhtar Rasool (member of the Executive Board and senior advisor to AHF president) and PHF secretary Rana Mujahid (vice president) were elected for the first ever time.

The PHF president appealed to the government of Pakistan as well as to the AHF to help the federation in revival of international hockey in Pakistan.

“We need a helping hand from the government to provide us with sufficient funds to the PHF for the promotion of the game which requires extra efforts from all quarters in order to regain its status,” Akhtar said.

“The government is considering allocating funds amounting to Rs. 480 million for the PHF, but I will say the amount is still a meager one. Not even 48 billion will be enough to meet tough goals such as promotion the game at the schools, college and club levels and to meet the international commitments,” he said.

“I would also like to appeal to Tayyab Ikram Rabbani to help Pakistan in organizing international competitions as our grounds have been lying barren for a long time now,” he said.

PHF secretary Rana Mujahid in his speech also welcomed Tayyab and said Pakistan was ready to pay its contribution for the promotion of the game in the sub-continent. He said the PHF had decided to complete all its international commitments, but it was looking towards the government of Pakistan for financial help. “Without money it is hard to run the game of hockey which is our national sport.”

It may be mentioned that Tayyab hails from Lahore and he has been associated with the AHF for the last 15 years and played a pivotal role in setting up hockey federations in many countries of Asia.

Former president PHF Qasim Zia, ex-secretaries Brig (retd) Mussarratullah Khan, Asif Bajwa, former Olympians Khawaja Junaid, Tahir Zaman, national selectors Arshad Chaudhary and Khalid Bashir and a number of hockey lovers also attended the reception.

Published in Dawn, September 17th, 2014