Hockey players still awaiting CT prize money

KARACHI: The members of the national senior hockey team and its management are still waiting for the prize money of the Champions Trophy 2014 in India in which Pakistan won the silver medal.
Their salaries and other bonuses are also due for a long time.
The PHF’s previous management led by Akhtar Rasool and Rana Mujahid failed to pay the salaries and other dues of the players.
They resigned after the team failed to qualify for the Rio Olympics 2016. Their predecessors Qasim Zia and Asif Bajwa had resigned when the team failed to qualify for the Hockey World Cup 2014.
It is yet to be seen how PHF’s new management, led by president Khalid Khokhar and secretary Shahbaz Ahmed, resolves this issue.
The former PHF managements are blamed for not resolving the financial issues of the players and officials. Some prominent officials were accused of misusing funds.
Various inquires are being conducted in this regard but the issue of the players is still to be resolved.
One of the member of the team said that these days PHF was busy preparing the junior team for Asia Cup 2015. “We hope that they will give us our right, too, and resolve the longstanding issue of our salaries and prize money,” he said.
The players got the prize money of the Asian Games Silver medal but not of the Champions Trophy although one year has passed since the event.
Sources in a group of senior players said that they had not been given central contracts since 2013. It was said that they would be paid monthly salaries but that also did not happen, they said. They hoped that PHF’s new management would pay their salaries and prize money.