KARACHI Pakistan hockey officials have turned the ongoing Junior Super Hockey League into a farce by introducing a bizarre format and messing up the show, running the event on the wishes of a private TV channel.
While even for a layman, a league is supposed to have a winner on the basis of points, the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF), has introduced quarter-finals after the so-called league, making the whole event nothing but a joke.
According to the format, the 10 teams taking part in the league are playing quarter-finals once each team completes its nine matches. The eight top teams have moved into the quarter-finals on the basis of the points, while two bottom-of-the-table teams have been eliminated.
Astonishingly, the number one team played against number eighth team, and the team which finished at second played against seventh position team in the quarter-finals, while remaining teams were pitted against each other in the same format.
The most agonising factor for the top teams is the injustice being meted out because of the strange format which has also taken gloss off the event. For instance, Multan , which finished third in the points table after winning five matches, crashed out losing to sixth-ranked team Islamabad 3-1 in the quarter-finals.
The PHF again came close to becoming a laughing stock when the top team Lahore, which won seven out of nine league matches, barely managed a 3-2 win over number eighth position team Quetta in the last eight stage.
'I think there should not have been quarter-finals. Instead of quarter-finals, teams should have moved directly into semi-finals,' said Lahore manager Khalid Rasool.
Interestingly, this event is for under-18 players, but they will be an overage lot for 2013 Jr World Cup as all these youngsters would not be less than 22 years of age which makes this exercise futile. If PHF is working to raise its team for under-18 Asia Cup to be held from Nov 14 to 22 in Myanmar , even then it is an energy-wasting activity. It would have been much better had the league been organised for under-17 which would have been useful for both, under-18 Asia Cup and the under-21 Jr World Cup.
Hockey affairs being run on the basis of vendetta and favouritism will also take its toll as several regions from Punjab have not been invited for the league only because they belonged to individuals who oppose the policies of PHF secretary Asif Bajwa. While there is already dearth of talented hockey players, such a policy has reduced the pool of players.
Although PHF ostensibly seemed to be serious in eliminating the overage players from the participating teams, it was irksome for the team officials the manner in which scrutiny was done in between the matches. The scrutiny process even forced some teams to play local players and ball pickers.
'Has anybody heard before any visiting team playing having ball pickers as players? After the scrutiny, we asked for local players to fill the bench. We got seven, out of which three were ball pickers. They acted as ball pickers in earlier two matches and played for us in the night. The scrutiny committee members are proud of themselves but they didnt notice that some teams goalkeepers never take their helmets off not even during halftime to hide their receding hairline,' Peshawar team coach Lt-Col Nadeem Bhatti told Dawn.com.
The Peshawar team official was also surprised that while there was no organising secretary for the league, there were no rules and regulations for the event which saw a blackout for hour and half during quarter-finals after power outage.
'We didnt have water during halftime for four days. It is the first event in which there is no organising secretary. While the pitch is muddy, slippery and bumpy, I dont know why this event is being organised during Ramazan. Quite a few of my players have been fasting and obviously got dehydrated,' he said.
The official said it was perhaps for the first time in the history of Pakistan hockey that apart from a tournament director, six assistant tournament directors, 29 judges and 23 umpires had been posted.
If one considers the numbers of the officials posted for the league it obviously seems to be part of an election campaign to oblige regions as PHF polls are due in January 2010.
Quetta coach Mujahid Butt also agreed that while the pitch was slippery and bumpy, no rules and regulation had been provided.
'There was no water initially, the pitch is indeed uneven, while no rules and regulations were provided to us,' said the official.
To add salt to the wounds, PHF officials are dancing to the tunes being played by the private TV channel which has the coverage rights of the league. Sources said, basically the format of the league was set so since the TV channel wanted to extend the event as they were busy in covering a local cricket tournament. And PHF found a novel way of extending the event by introducing knock-out stage.
The PHF changed the schedule of the league twice to satisfy the TV channel which first asked the organisers to end the league on Sept 13 instead of Sept 14, and have Sept 15 as rest day while previously the quarter-finals were scheduled on that day. Then on Sept 14, the timings of the quarter-finals were changed according to the wishes of the TV channel.
When the TV channel crew were not ready on time for live transmission before first quarter-final, a fuming tournament director Hanif Khan lost his patience and ordered to start the match only to be cajoled by PHF director administration Iftikhar Syed who begged him to give the TV staff some time to settle down.
Organising hockey activity in such a manner could be a political gimmick to impress International Hockey Federation president Leandro Negre who is to visit Pakistan next month, but it could never be in the interest of the sport itself.
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