ISLAMABAD - Olympian Shahnaz Shaikh has come down hard on Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) and held them responsible for team’s poor showings in almost every major event.
In an interview with The Nation on Saturday, former coach Shahnaz said current PHF management was very fortunate to remain at the helm of affairs despite completing their four-year tenure.
Shahnaz said the PHF can't complain about lack of funds as a reason behind poor showings as the federation had received almost Rs900 million grants from federal and Punjab governments. The PHF never went even close of getting such financial backings in the past and despite that the results of the under current management were humiliating, he added.
He said after every tournament defeat the PHF start to give false statements that their main task was winning the next tournament but they never performed any tournament yet. “Before the departure of for the World Hockey League, management had claimed that they had managed to overcome all the flaws of players and would give desired results. Everyone has now seen the “desired results” given by the team, which can't even make it to the semifinals despite having a relatively easy pool.”
Shahnaz said the behaviour of the players inside the circle whether attacking or defending was totally unprofessional which was the main reason behind poor goal-converting ratio and conceding goals.
Shahnza said the PHF had completely failed to improve the standard of the game and enhancing the pool of players. “A number of players in the current squad should have been retired or shown the door at least two years back. It clearly indicates that the tall claims regarding the PHF ghost academies is a total fraud and unproductive upon which the PHF has wasted a lot of money.”
Shahnaz made an appeal to Prime Minister Mian Nawaz Sharif, who is also the Patron-in-Chief of the PHF to remove incompetent officials from the PHF otherwise it would be even impossible for Pakistan to qualify for the World Cup.