A group of Olympians and internationals have demanded immediate adhoc set up in Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) to what they called `save it from disaster and further decline. "The hockey has suffered greatly in the past four years and it was the time to impose an adhoc to save the game from further decline," former Pakistan captain Islahuddin Siddiqui said at news conference at Karachi Press Club on Friday.
"Current set up of PHF had made the mockery of the game at international level," Islah an ex-hockey coach, said. He said despite receiving a huge grant of Rs 800 million from the government the current PHF hierarchy failed to improve hockey. "When current PHF set up took over Pakistan was ranked 6th in International hockey and now they have slipped to 9th," they said. They appealed to the President and Prime Minister to take an immediate decision to impose an adhoc in PHF. Former forward Shahnaz Shaikh said they advised PHF to induct a young blood in the national team after their triumph in Asian Games final.
However, despite our advise of inserting a young blood in the team, they inducted aging players like Rehan Butt, Wasim Ahmed and Sohail Abbas in the team. "Incompetent coaches in academies across the country also damaged the game," 1984 Los Angles gold medalist Ayaz Mahmood alleged.
PHF officials and coaches had been talking about the shortcoming and gray areas in the team but they failed to improve it, Ayaz said. Another former Olympian Rashid-ul-Hasan said it was futile exercise to play series against India which is ranked 12th in the world. "If our demands are not met we would be staging a protest infront of the parliament house in Islamabad in three week time," Islahuddin said. Former PHF Secretary and Olympian Akhtar-ul-Islam, Qamar Zia, Kamran Ashraf, Qamar Ibrahim, Safdar Abbas were also present and spoke on the occasion.
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