Tariq Bugti, who headed the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF), stepped down following complaints by nationwide group gamers. Photograph: PHF
ISLAMABAD:
Pakistan’s hockey chief resigned on Thursday, a day after the prime minister ordered an inquiry right into a shambolic tour of Australia that noticed the nationwide group scrubbing dishes in a visitor home.
Tariq Bugti, who headed the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF), stepped down following complaints by nationwide group gamers in final week’s whitewash tour, and after premier Shehbaz Sharif launched a probe.
Whereas cricket is vastly fashionable in Pakistan, discipline hockey is the nation’s nationwide sport.
However Pakistan — three-time Olympic champions and four-time World Cup winners — have plummeted to as little as 14th within the worldwide rankings.
Group captain Ammad Butt slammed the PHF, blaming the physique for not paying for a resort, with gamers compelled to scrub their garments and dishes at what they deemed substandard lodging in Hobart, Tasmania.
Forward of the Australia tour, gamers boycotted a coaching camp over non-payment of a each day allowance of $110 — their solely earnings with no match charges or central contracts.
“I’m bored with the strain which we’ve suffered within the final 12 months,” Butt informed AFP.
“First I needed to battle for the each day allowances and now this shabby therapy on the tour.”
Butt stated when the gamers landed in Sydney en-route to Hobart for the second spherical of their Professional League fixtures, they needed to roam the streets with no resort to remain in.
“Once we reached Hobart, the administration informed us it didn’t have adequate funds to pay the resort costs and we needed to dwell in a visitor home,” Butt stated.
“The gamers needed to put together their breakfast, do dishwashing and wash garments. On this scenario what sort of efficiency may a participant produce for the group?”
Pakistan have misplaced each considered one of their eight matches within the Professional League, dropping 3-0 and 3-2 to Australia and 5-2 and 3-1 to Germany — all in Hobart.
They misplaced to Argentina and the Netherlands within the first spherical in December.
“I resign from my submit,” Bugti stated in a press convention on Thursday, calling for an investigation after Butt “threatened the administration on the tour”.
Pakistan haven’t certified for the final three Olympics and had been twelfth once they final performed a World Cup in 2018.
Subsequent month, Pakistan will characteristic in a qualifying spherical in Egypt to say a spot within the subsequent World Cup, hosted by the Netherlands and Belgium in August.
