PHF secretary Shahbaz Ahmed Senior was talking to media, which came amidst the International Hockey Federation’s (FIH) decision to replace Pakistan with Malaysia in the Junior World Cup, which is scheduled to start from December 8 in India’s Lucknow.

“The most dejected and disappointed are our junior players who were well prepared for the World Cup but unfortunately the situation forced the PHF to take a strict decision of not sending any team to India for any tournament in future,” said dejected Shahbaz, reported local media.

Shahbaz further slammed FIH inability to grant visas to Pakistan whereas, India issued visa to the Malaysian team in three days to participate in the mega event.

“The FIH decision is in fact a damaging blow to our hockey, considering the fact that Pakistan has already failed to qualify for the back-to-back big events — 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympic Games — and these juniors whom we thought would be groomed in such mega events were our main hope,” informed the PHF Secretary.

  Copyright Business Recorder, 2016