LAHORE: Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) secretary Shahbaz Ahmed Senior on Thursday categorically blamed hockey’s world governing body FIH for Pakistan’s replacement with Malaysia in Junior World Cup due to what he called FIH’s inability to ensure timely visas for the participating teams.

The Junior World Cup will be held in India from Dec 8.

Talking to media here in the wake of FIH’s withdrawal of invite to Pakistan, a dejected Shahbaz said that Pakistan would not field any team in any tournament allotted to India in future, adding that the junior team was well-prepared for the mega event but all their efforts were in vain amid FIH withdrawal of invite to Pakistan and its subsequent invitation to Malaysia.

“The most dejected and disappointed are our junior players who were well prepared for the World Cup but unfortunately the situation forced the PHF to take a strict decision of not sending any team to India for any tournament in future,” Shahbaz said.

“The FIH decision is in fact a damaging blow to our hockey, considering the fact that Pakistan has already failed to qualify for the back-to-back big events — 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympic Games — and these juniors whom we thought would be groomed in such mega events were our main hope,” maintained the PHF secretary.

“Star players are born when they play in such big events as no Test series can hone skills of a player as mega events like the World Cup can,” Shahbaz further said.

The PHF secretary said that he admitted that the FIH is headed by an Indian in Narinder Batra but the PHF will present its case before the independent board of the FIH which he said would hear Pakistan’s case, adding that Batra cannot take whimsical decisions.

“The PHF will raise the issue at the FIH meetings and though the Hockey India’s chief (Batra) is also the president of the FIH, an independent board also exists at the FIH and they will hear our case. It is not possible for Batra to take decision according to his wishes as it is the matter of world hockey’s future,” he asserted.

If FIH could not ensure timely visa for the participating teams, it should not hold the event in such countries, he maintained while stating that like the IOC, “which first gets assurance of entry of everyone carrying its accreditation card into the country hosting the Olympics, the FIH should take such guarantees before allotting any event to any host country.”

Shahbaz said that the players had done a lot of hard work and obtained second position in the last tournament held in Malaysia which showed they had the guts to pose challenge to any top team.

“We have spent Rs100 million on the preparations of the junior team but Pakistan was replaced at the eleventh hour despite applying for Indian visas on Oct 24.

“The most unfortunate fact is that though we applied for the Indian visas well on time but we failed to get the visas but Malaysian players were given the same visas in days who are playing in the event as our replacement,” the PHF secretary bemoaned.

Answering a question, Shahbaz said that in fact India did not want to see Pakistan team in their country, adding that even the hotel in India had also written a letter asking the PHF to deposit a non-refundable amount of $40,000 in advance.

“How can we deposit such a big amount when visas were not issued to us? And I can bet that the hotels had not imposed the same condition on the other participating teams which is another example of a biased attitude of India, indicating they are not willing to allow us to field a team in events being held on their soil,” remarked Shahbaz.

The secretary said that the PHF had also written a letter to the Pakistan Olympic Association (POA), informing it about the entire situation, adding that the latter had supported the PHF stance.

On the other hand, Senate Standing Commi­ttee on Sports had also been informed about the entire situation while the Foreign Office was also well aware of the matter, Shahbaz commented, adding that the government had also issued the NOC to PHF which was quite serious about featuring in the event and did not make any fuss about security issues in India.

“Our players and we should learn a lesson from the situation and it is that we should stand out in the world of hockey and beat India whenever they face us in any competition,” he said.

The secretary said that the PHF would continue to prepare different teams apart from working for arranging tours of Europe and Australia for seniors next year.

Answering yet another question, Shahbaz remarked that the PHF would hold its own hockey league, stating that the federal government had promised that it would talk to the government of Punjab in connection with security issues.

The PHF secretary dispelled the impression that Hockey India chief Batra would create impediments in holding of a successful hockey league.

Published in Dawn, December 2nd, 2016