Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) President Qasim Zia has dismissed the hopes of Pakistan hosting the Champions Trophy in December, leading to speculations that the event might be held in India.
Zia said that Pakistan wanted to send out a positive signal to the world that it was ready to host the international matches, but added that the federation wanted to take the things slow and has planned a series against China in December.
“I have a feeling that the International Hockey Federation (FIH) will sort out the matter with the Indian officials and the Champions Trophy will happen in New Delhi. The FIH doesn’t have the time to rearrange things but the situation will be clear by the end of the month,” he said.
“We would’ve requested the event to be shifted to Pakistan but logistics – including the availability of just one synthetic stadium in Lahore – was the biggest problem,” he added.
Meanwhile, FIH Competition Manager Martyn Gallivan has said that they are still looking for a suitable venue for the Champions Trophy, which will be announced in the next two weeks.
This is the opportunity for the PHF to play their cards right like BCCI did to erase all kinds of hope to give Pakistan any Cricket World Cup games. BCCI was not fair to the PCB, by bringing up the recent Siri Lankan incident and lack of security in the ICC meeting. PHF also should bring up the matter of HI and IHF's consistent deadlock on all kinds of issues regarding hockey. If Champions Trophy is held in these conditions, the prestige of the tournament is bound to get dented and besides the tournament will be dis-organized. No one will enjoy the full authority to make the calls. IHF and HI are two groups who did not even sit together after the intervention of the current Indian government. At the same time PHF can talk about this problem in the next FIH meeting and also can hold the tournament in four cities. Lahore, Karachi, Islamabad and Rawalpindi. Also Faisalabad and Peshawar are available. It will just need more structural organizing and there are several departmental organizers who can do this job easily. Another option is if Pakistan is given the Champions Trophy, PHF can host it in the middle east. Bahrain, Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Kuwait are available.
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