2016 Rio Olympic qualifiers: PHF fails to organise preparatory tour yet again

National hockey players have decided to play in international leagues

KARACHI: The Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) has once again failed to arrange even a single international tour for the national team ahead of the 2016 Rio Olympic qualifiers – the Hockey World League semi-finals – in June, which are scheduled to be held at the KHC Dragons Hockey Club, Antwerp in Belgium.

Consequently, the senior players have decided to play in international leagues in order to prepare themselves after performing last at the Champions Trophy in December where ended as runners-up.

The PHF had initially planned a tour of China, but that idea collapsed while their next proposal for Malaysia in mid-February also fell through, citing the same reason as before —shortage of funds.

“We cannot prepare for the qualifiers by only participating in national events as we have to face top teams from around the world in order to make our place in the Olympics,” said Pakistan’s young centre-half Tousiq Arshad. “Although we grabbed a silver in both the Asian Games [September] and the Champions Trophy, without tours this will not be the case each time.”

Another player also rued the state of affairs, saying, “The reason we have decided to join international leagues is because of the financial crisis, we haven’t even been paid for our hard work as yet.”

 

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