Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) has criticized the International Hockey Federation (FIH) for singling out Pakistan from the Junior World Cup saying that the world governing body is fully influenced by their Indian counterpart.

It may be mentioned here that the FIH had omitted Pakistan from the Jr World Cup to be held in Lucknow next month.

According to the FIH, the PHF had failed to meet the official deadline for submitting the travel documents of its players. The game’s world governing body announced Malaysia as a replacement for Pakistan in the tournament which is scheduled to commence on December 8.

Talking to APP, PHF Secretary Shehbaz Ahmed Sr. said the PHF had submitted travel documents of the players on time on October 24. “We provided everything as per schedule, we got the No Objection Certificates (NOCs) on time but it is only India that did not issue visas to the Pakistan’s contingent,” he said.

“This move by the FIH was all pre-planned as the world governing body is headed by India’s Dr Narinder Batra,” he said adding FIH’s decision has done a lot of damage to Pakistan hockey.

He said that India was involving politics into sports. “If the FIH was fair enough than it should have questioned the Indian Hockey Federation as to why the visas of Pakistani players were delayed instead of pointing a finger on the PHF,” he noted.

“India provided visa to the Malaysian team in three-days,” he claimed and added that if India wanted us to play then issuing visa to our team was not a big deal.