Hockey suffering for lack of PM’s attention

KARACHI: Pakistan’s two most popular sports urgently need the attention of the Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif as both have been on the decline for quite some time.
Both premier games are passing through their worst ever crises and it is the PM’s obligation to address their issues.
Pakistan’s cricket team’s performance at the ongoing World Cup has exposed the blunders committed by the selectors and the officials hired to keep the players fit.
The PM has been blamed for the cricket crisis as he has appointed his close associates in the cricket board.
The hockey team’s meeting with the PM has been scheduled and then postponed a number of times although it won silver medals in two back-to-back tournaments.
The number of players getting injuries before and during the World Cup has exposed the poor planning of PCB. It is pertinent to mention here that the PCB had organised a one-month fitness camp under the supervision of Moin Khan in Lahore.
The team’s batting has been miserable so far. It lost four wickets against West Indies for only one run.
Sources said it was unjust to ignore Fawad Alam, Shoaib Malik, Asad Shafiq, and Azhar Ali, who have the ability to bat 50 overs on the fast and speedy tracks of New Zeeland and Australia.
Pakistan still have matches ahead and if they bounced back and reached the semi-final, the cricket-crazy nation would forget everything.
Hockey, which is our national game and has distinctive achievements, has been ignored by the PM. A meeting was scheduled for March 3 but it was postponed — the fifth time this meeting was postponed.
Sources in the Pakistan Sports Board said the meeting might take place on March 20.
Sources in the PHF said that March 3 meeting had been postponed due to PM’s departure for Saudi Arabia. But they did not confirm if the meeting would be held on March 20.
It is time for IPC ministry to come forward and make it clear why the PM of the country is reluctant to meet with the hockey team and PHF officials, said a source and said that the PM is the patron in chief of PHF.
Sources said that traditionally the PM appointed the president of PHF and then its Congress gave the approval, but this time PHF president Akhtar Rasool and secretary Rana Mujahid were chosen through an electoral process, which was declared controversial by a number of former greats of the game.
The PM may be reluctant to have the meeting because PHF would demand release of Rs500 million.
Sources in the hockey circles said that preparation time for the Rio Olympics 2016 was being wasted. Pakistan are to play qualifying rounds in June 2015 in Belgium. The Minister of IPC who runs the sports affairs at the federal government level after the 18th Amendment should play his due role and end the ambiguity.
He must make it clear if the federal government is unwilling to release the funds in the presence of present officials of PHF.