Zahir Shah blamed for the failure to revive hockey in Bannu: Hockey Update
Bannu carries great importance in the history of the country’s sports for providing legendary players, who later earned medals at international competitions of their time. This stadium is counted amongst the renowned traditional spots of Pakistan’s province,
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Among the outclass international players of Bannu, there were also a few hockey gems that brought home gold medals of the ‘Pride of Performance’ for the country, like Saeed Khan, Rashid Junior, Brig (Retd) Abdul Hameed Hameedi and late Qazi Muhibur-Rehman,
after whom a hockey stadium in Bannu is named.
Moreover, there were some international players belonging to Bannu namely, Aman Ullah, Late Saleem Ullah Khan, Shafqat Ullah, Nazeer Gul, Muhammad Yaqoob, Nasir Khan, Anwer Rashid, Farhat Khan and Akram Raza.
It is disappointing that the arena has lost its splendour for serving the country with more of such talents, as it did in the past. However, the Hockey Secretary of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Zahir Shah, has been accused for the negligence towards reviving the
sport in the area.
Despite the fact that the district has one-of-a-kind privilege of holding the first hockey academy of the region, no efforts were made to promote the sport in the region. The academy had been established due to the commendable solitary effort made by an
internationally renowned umpire, Zafar Ali Zafari, also known as the father of hockey in Bannu.
It is disappointing to note that in spite of such a remarkable hockey background, the association in KP has taken no initiative to enliven the stadiums with athletes and crowds. Rather, they are busy in their court cases.
Zahir, being posted as secretary for the last 20 years, did not play his role at all and has divided the sport into various groups. Zahir is said to be completely responsible for not opening doors for the district players having the potential to show up
their talent in the international arena. These youngsters lack the required platform of camps to make it so high up into the national hockey team.
Moreover, hockey academy that was announced to be inaugurated in the locality, about three years ago, has not yet set-up in working condition, for which the people have pin-pointed Zahir as the primary cause.
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