LAHORE: Former Pakistan captain and incumbent secretary of the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) Shahbaz Ahmad Senior has been elected as one of the four members of the International Hockey Federation (FIH) Executive Board in the recent elections held in India.

Overall 250 delegates from around the world attended the 46th FIH Congress meeting in New Delhi to elect the executive members, including two men and two women.

Dr Michael Green of Germany is another one who bagged the second seat among the male members besides Shahbaz. The women seats went to Maureen Craig-Rousseau (Trinidad & Tobago) and Elizabeth Sofoa King (Ghana).

Though Shahbaz has not been to excel in his role as secretary PHF since the country’s hockey has taken a nosedive during his four years tenure, he has been widely recognized as one of the greatest hockey players to have played the game. Shahbaz played 300 international matches for Pakistan and he also led the country to win the 1994 World Cup in Sydney. He was also declared Player of the 1990 World Cup as of 1994 Cup in Sydney. Under his captaincy Pakistan also claimed bronze medal in Olympics Games 1992 which were held in Barcelona.

Shahbaz is coming back from India via Wagah Border on Sunday after the FIH polls.. He will announce the new team management for the World Cup 2018 which is scheduled to be held in India from Nov 28 to Dec 16.

In place of assistant coach Muhammad Saqlain, who quit the post during the Asian Champions Trophy in Oman after developing differences with head coach-cum-manager Hasan Sardar, Danish Kaleem is likely to be inducted as assistant coach. Tauqir Dar has refused to accept the post of head coach in place of Roelant Oltmans as Hasan Sardar is handling it as additional job with the post of manager. However, Tauqir is most likely to be appointed as assistant manager since Hasan will hold dual post - manager and head coach—till the world cup.

Meanwhile, the financial affairs of the PHF are not in good shape since the federal government did not release any special funds for the World Cup’s preparations as the training camp is being started from Nov 5 in Lahore.

The PHF could hardly bear the expenses of the national team’s participation in the Asian Champions Trophy held in Oman last week, where Pakistan and India remained joint winners after their final could not be held due to heavy rains. Though the PHF has made a request to the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) for a special grant for the Asian Champions Trophy as well as for the World Cup-2018, no positive response received at yet.

The incumbent body of the PHF headed by Brig. (retd.) Sajjad Khokhar was elected during the PML-N last rule in 2014 but in result of the general elections held in 2018 PTI government is at the helm and it refrains to to give any funds to this body, irrespective of the fact that mega event of World Cup is around the corner.

Published in Dawn, November 4th, 2018