Speaking to Dawn on the sidelines of the 57th National Hockey Championship on Tuesday, Zeeshan said that this was also one of the reasons for his not having taken back the decision to retire from international hockey.
“It was very kind of Pakistan Hockey Federation PHF President Qasim Zia to not accept our resignations, but I just don't see any future for myself in the sport anymore,” said the dejected player.
Zeeshan, who is currently heading the star-studded National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) team in the national hockey event, said that he is still a contractual employee which is certainly not a job status to relish.
“I have been playing for the bank for 10 years now with no prospect of a regular job. I am 32 years old, you tell me how much more hockey I have left in me to expect anything fruitful at this stage? I wish I had thought of doing something else in life,” he repented.
When reminded about Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani's directive which he had issued on Qasim Zia's request before the World Cup about regularising players' jobs, the fullback said “But nothing happened! And no one seems to care about us after the World Cup debacle anyway.”
Asked if he had any offers from abroad, the senior player said “Yes, I have a few offers to play in foreign leagues but I prefer to play in my own country.”
He added “I am happily married with two little daughters. If I had sons I would not encourage them to ever get into hockey as it has nothing to offer for the player. My cousins wanted to play hockey too but under the present circumstances, I have also advised them to stay away from the game and turn their attention to something else instead.”
When Dawn contacted NBP's sports division chief, former Test cricketer Iqbal Qasim, regarding the issue, he explained that the matter of regularisation of players wasn't so simple. “Yes, the prime minister issued a directive about regularising players' jobs recently, but you also have to understand that we have many players working with us. They need to be categorised for us to award them proper grades when regularising their jobs,” he explained.
“I have also taken up the matter with PHF's Director Operations, Olympian Rana Mujahid, requesting him to speak to the prime minister about specifically naming the players he would like the bank to give proper jobs to as we can only follow the directive on a policy basis,” he pointed out.
“See we cannot award the same grades to all the players. There are some who are Olympians while others are internationals. Some have played for Pakistan, some haven't. Likewise some may be graduates while other matriculates. We will definitely follow the PM's instructions but you have to understand that we just cannot offer permanent employment to all the players who work for us.”
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