ISLAMABAD - Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) reacted as per expectations, as they showed the door to skipper Sohail Abbas, striker Rehna Butt and manager Khawaja Junaid at least for the time being and replaced head coach Akhtar Rasool for the managerial post.
As far Akhtar Rasool is concerned, everyone is fully aware of the fact that he enjoys excellent relations with PHF president Qasim Zia, so it was almost sure that he would retain or get a new role in the next set up while Hanif Khan, who was a big flop as chief selector and realising the fact, had earlier quit the post sighting poor showing of the team in the London Olympics, is now installed as new coach of Pakistan team.
Pakistan hockey team is given new look, if any is that skipper Sohail is once again dropped, but even PHF is not sure for how long they afford to leave out Sohail, as there is hardly any real replacement for Sohail as far as short corners are concerned.
It is true Sohail is not the same as he once was but it is also true that he is still by far the best short corner specialist as his records speaks. Now what will PHF do without Sohail? Who is going to put the ball into the net for Pakistan in short corners? The other short corner specialist Imran had also managed to score some goals while taking short corners, but he is still far away from the class which Sohail possess.
The masses were expecting a complete overhaul as far as the PHF and the team management was concerned after the dismal performance in the London 2012 Olympics and the people had pinned high hopes on Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, who is also the patron in chief of Pakistan Hockey Federation, that he would take some stern actions against the federation’s top brass, but to their utter disappointment, nothing had been done as far as showing the door was concerned to Qasim Zia and especially secretary Asif Bajwa as both these gentlemen had managed to cling on to their posts by passing on the worst performance of the team burden to some players and officials.
For how long people like Qasim Zia and Asif Bajwa would get away despite showing poor results, wasting precious national exchequer on foreign coach and useless foreign trips of national team which had nothing to do as far as preparing for the international events as these tours were arranged just to give joy ride to the PHF officials families and spent summer vacations in Europe.
The Prime Minister should immediately constitute a high level committee comprising past hockey greats, MNAs and present Supreme Court judges and should investigate all the wrongdoings of the federation thoroughly and bring the culprit to justice and give exemplary punishments to the guilty so that no one in future can dare to think about any wrongdoings.
As already precious time had been wasted to restore hockey in Pakistan, now it is the time when Prime Minister of Pakistan should come forward and give exemplary punishments to the culprits who damaged Pakistan hockey while any further delays in this regard can destroy national game of the country and it would take years to overcome the damages.