LAHORE: Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) Secretary Olympian Shahbaz Senior has vowed to do his best to avoid any kind of sanctions of the International Hockey Federation (FIH) on Pakistan in the wake of its failure of not fielding the national team in the newly-introduced FIH Pro League due to the financial crisis.

Talking to journalists after regaining charge as PHF secretary, as PHF President Khalid Sajjad Khokhar did not accept his resignation, Shahbaz said: “As I am a member of the FIH Competition Committee and Executive Board, I will try my best to avoid the sanctions. Pakistan has a great contribution in the world of hockey so, hopefully, we will escape any penalties for not entering the team.”

Shahbaz resigned as PHF secretary after Pakistan’s dismal show at last year’s World Cup in India where they finished 11th. During this period, Ayaz Mahmood was appointed as associate secretary and Ikhlaq Usmani was made acting secretary. Usmani decided not to send the team to Argentina on the first leg of the Pro League.

He said had the federal government released the sanctioned grant of Rs200 million of the PHF during the interim government in June last year, the Pakistan team would have been participating in the ongoing Pro League.

He said that with the limited funds in PHF’s accounts, it was not possible to spend any money on the national team’s participation in the Pro League.

Shahbaz also lashed out at former Olympians for unnecessarily criticising the PHF over the use of funds. He said the Olympians should wait for the audited report of PHF funds. He said though the Olympians were frequently saying the PHF received Rs540 million, they never spoke of the fact that the national team also had 27 tours in this period.

Shahbaz also criticised media for only criticising him for the decline in the performance of the national team and there was not a single word against the roles of players and coaches.

He regretted that the fitness level of Pakistani players was not up to international standards.

Shahbaz said all the previous selection committees headed by Hasan Sardar, Tahir Zaman and Khwaja Junaid did the team’s selection on their own, and he had never interfered in their matters.

He proposed that the PHF would have no objection if the federal government directly made all arrangements of the tours of the national team on its own and just release some portion of the funds to the federation to run the offices.

He said the much-awaited meeting of the PHF Congress would be held in the current month alongside the National Under-19 championship, which was being held in Islamabad.

He said at least Rs 2.5 million was required to hold the meeting of the Congress.

Published in Dawn, February 9th, 2019