VENUES: No ground rules
By A. Majid Khan
T****he Hockey Club of Pakistan, which used to be an internationally known venue that staged a number of international tournaments, has been declared unsuitable for any international event by the International Hockey Federation (FIH). As a result, for more than two decades no FIH-approved event has been organised in Karachi, the capital of Sindh.
The FIH has ruled that the club lacks the required facilities for staging an international tournament as it has no extra ground and no parking facilities, since almost all the vacant areas, which were once part of the club, have been utilised for private purposes. Even the extra grassy ground adjacent to the HCP is now under the cantonment authorities’ control. The ground was leased to the PHF. Different teams used to have their practice sessions (and play matches) here; but the authorities concerned have erected walls around the ground. It is no more a hockey ground now.
Surprisingly, the cantonment authorities have asked the Pakistan Hockey Federation to vacate the HCP when the federation approached them for renewal of the 30-year lease which had twice been extended in the past. The PHF applied rather late for extending the lease, which shows how the federation works.
Almost all the leading teams of the world have played at the HCP on which the first Astroturf was laid, and the third edition of the six-nation prestigious Champions Trophy was held, in 1981 in Karachi. The inaugural Asia Cup was also organised at the HCP in 1982 and Chinese men and women teams were seen in action on a number of occasions.
Karachi has a population of more than 10 million. It has been deprived of international hockey matches. Only Lahore, the PHF headquarters, meets the FIH requirement for holding international events.
PHF president Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali told mediamen on April 10 after the federation’s meeting in Karachi that as long as he’s the federation’s president the HCP could not be shifted to any other place. He plans to meet Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, who is patron-in-chief of the PHF, and brief him about the HCP and other hockey-related issues.
The club has historic significance. It is part of our hockey history. The HCP badly needs a new Astroturf as the one that it has is very old.