Karachi: Khalid Khokar, president of the Pakistan Hockey Federation on Friday threatened to pull out of the 2018 FIH World Cup if not assured of full-proof security and easy procurement of visa to India.
According to a report in the The Times of India, the PHF president, Khokar in a recent meeting with FIH president Narinder Batra (who is also president of Hockey India) informed that only under top security will the Pakistan team participate in the World Cup.
“We had a very good meeting as we conveyed all our concerns to Batra and other FIH member boards. I have made it clear to them that we want assurances from FIH that we will face no problems with procurement of visa and will be given top security during the event,” informed Khokar.
He added, “I made it clear that if we face similar problems that our junior team faced in getting visas than we will not send our team to India.”
With high tensions between both the nations still prevailing, the Indian High Commission in Islamabad had earlier refused to provide visas to the Pakistan junior national team to participate in the junior World Cup held in India.
“Eventually our team couldn’t go to India and that put our hockey back quite a lot. But this time we have told the FIH President we want complete assurances and security for the World Cup in India,” he said.
Talking about both the nation’s relations Khokar suggested that “Pakistan and India should play a bilateral series as a start in Muscat next year.”
Following the successful run of the Hockey India League, Pakistan are also eager to launch their own version of the tournament and Khokar said, “We spoke to Batra and other FIH members about our plans to launch the Pakistan Hockey League and sought assurances from them foreign players will be available for the league.”
“We don’t want a situation where we invest a lot of money in the league and than find out other countries are reluctant to send their players to Pakistan or the FIH is not supporting our league,” he concluded.
The clash between arch-rivals India and Pakistan, in any sport is exciting for fans world-wide. With Pakistan set to clash against india in the upcoming Asia Cup in Dhaka, one would only hope that their participation in the World Cup is not jeopardised by the current affairs.