LAHORE: Thirteen ex-hockey Olympians have jointly written a letter to Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, the patron-in-chief of the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF), asking him to change the current hockey management for their failure in lifting the national team’s performance despite getting record financial assistance.

“Keeping in view the handling of the Pakistan hockey team by the present management, we don’t think they can bring good results from the Olympic Games 2012 in London,” Olympian Shahnaz Sheikh wrote to the prime minister on behalf of 12 other Olympians.

Besides Shahnaz, others Olympians mentioned in the letter include Khalid Mahmood, Islahuddin Siddiqui, Saleem Sherwani, Samiullah, Shahbaz Ahmed Senior, Saleem Nazim, Qamar Ibrahim, Qamar Zia, Saeed Khan, Mohammad Ayaz, Tahir Zaman and Naveed Alam.

“We have to revive the time-tested conventional system in the light of modernisation to build a balanced combination for the Olympic Games. The average age of Pakistan hockey team is far from ideal and the current lot of players are unable to produce good results. Therefore we have to induct fresh players, especially in important positions,” they wrote.

They have also highlighted off the field performance of the PHF management, saying: “The present PHF is the most controversial ever. In 2008 then minister of sports exercised his power vide 4 (x1) the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) 1981. The federal minister for sports, in his capacity as president PSB, removed World Cup-winning captain Khalid Mehmood from the position of honorary secretary and replaced him with Asif Bajwa on adhoc basis. (the case is subjudice).

“(i) The present PHF is also involved in human smuggling and an inquiry into this was conducted by sports committees of Senate/NA who expressed concerns over the issue.

(ii) The PHF disgraced the nation by getting involved in nasty scandals in Argentina. Inquiry was conducted and official as well as the players were reprimanded and fined for the same.

(iii) Violation of PHF constitution was committed during club scrutiny and election process of 2010 in which the employee of the PHF was nominated as scrutiny officer. The election commissioner did not issue notification. (case is sub judice).

“(iv) Another unimaginative decision by the PHF was taken where it was made mandatory that no player above the age of 30 years can participate in the local tournaments. However, several players in the national team are above that age-limit.

“(v) After the shameful and pathetic performance in 2010 World Cup, the PHF had tried to manipulate things and the whole team resigned in India. Later, the decision was reverted after a meeting with the sports minister. This calculated move hasencouraged players’ power in the team.

“In the light of the above mismanagement and misappropriation we the Olympians humbly request Prime Minister of Pakistan Yousuf Raza Gilani to spare a few precious minutes and allow us to explain our concerns over the decline of the national game and wrong doings of the PHF.

They claimed that the present PHF was the most privileged body in the country’s history, saying the federation headed by Qasim Zia/Asif Bajwa took over in 2008 with the promise to streamline the game’s affairs and to improve overall standard, both nationally and internationally.

They added the government had injected handsome amount of Rs500million into the PHF, but all that support proved counter-productive and the team’s poor performance is a reflection of that. The last three years have been the story of defeats, humiliation and fall in standard at all levels,” the letter said.

“Pakistan hockey has now reached the lowest point and are currently placed at 9th in world rankings. The fall occurred despite the fact that the federal/provincial governments have supported the PHF financially with Rs500 million grant,” asserted the Olympians.

They also mentioned poor results earned in the last Olympics Games 2008 (8th position), World Cup (12th, among 12th), Commonwealth Games-2010 (ended up at worst-ever 6th position), Asian Games-2010 (Gold medal as only oneachievement), Champions Trophy (7th place out of 8th) in the letter.