Abbottabad team officials were irritated when one of their players Abdul Qayyum Dogar was removed before the quarter-final against Sialkot on the instructions of PHF secretary Asif Bajwa who claimed that the player was overage.

The tournament director Hanif Khan was approached by the Abbottabad team officials after the removal of the player. According to the team officials, a protest was lodged within few minutes of removal of the player.

The scrutiny process was a constant and unending process. Qayyum was removed after playing some seven to eight matches. But when we pointed out that three Sialkot players - Ali Raza, Waseem Abbas and Mohammad Jaffar - are also overage, our plea was turned down.

We then submitted our protest signed by our manager Riasat against this discrimination to tournament director. Tournament officer Younus Siddiqui received the protest on behalf of tournament director. We also gave a copy of the protest to PHF secretary who took it and put it in the drawer, Abbottabad team coach Arshad Munir told Dawn.com on Thursday.

The team official alleged that although there were overage players in Sialkot and other teams, not a single player was ousted at quarter-final stage for being overage except Abbottabad.

Hanif, however, said Abbottabad did try to lodge a protest against removal of their player, but he had asked them to submit it to PHF secretary who actually had removed their player.

The scrutiny process for eliminating overage players has become a nuisance and a cause of controversies. PHF had appointed former Pakistan captain Hasan Sardar the convenor of the scrutiny committee, while members were Shahida Jamil, Zahir Shah, Khawaja Junaid and Mohammad Usman.
 
But interestingly, the scrutiny committee became redundant when unauthorised individuals such as selectors Shafiq and Rana Mujahid scrutinised the players during the initial days of the league, bypassing the scrutiny committee.

If one considers the whole scrutiny process it might prove futile since there are still complaints of overage players in the league which is now in the final stage. If PHF was really serious about eliminating overage players, bone test was the only solution which was implemented by India during national under-18 camp which has now been suspended after 55 players were found overage following medical test.

Arshad also alleged that umpire Mubarak, who belonged to Punjab, was deliberately posted to officiate Abbottabad-Sialkot quarter-final to manipulate in favour of Sialkot from where PHF secretary belonged.

Since we had concerns on Mubarak's posting for our quarter-final, a day before the match we had asked technical officials to replace him. We were assured he would be replaced, but the next day he was there to officiate our match. We protested over his presence but all in vain. Our apprehensions proved right as the umpire gave four penalty strokes against us in 25 minutes and we lost the match, said the official.

Olympian Naeem Akhtar lashed out at PHF for what he claimed was discrimination with the Abbottabad team and mismanagement during the so-called league.

Being an Olympian, I must say that what Asif Bajwa did was not only discrimination against Abbottabad but it was also done to help Sialkot win. The league is a total mess. At least 20 to 25 players of different teams got sick by having sub-standard food at Haji Camp where PHF had initially arranged boarding and lodging of the teams, the former Pakistan player said.

He was also critical of the composition of the selection committee, saying while three selectors - Rana Mujahid, Muhammad Shafiq and Khalid Bashir - all were from Faisalabad, two of them - Mujahid and Khalid - were both full-backs.

Is there any wisdom in having two full-backs in the selection committee. Is there any balance in the selection committee which has three selectors from Faisalabad, he asked.

Meanwhile, the league has also been big flop if one considers low attendance at the venue where hardly 100 to 200 people could be seen, most of them discarded overage players or their team officials in the stands. PHF's tall claims of pulling crowds in huge numbers proved wrong despite daily Rs10,000 lucky draw.