LAHORE: The Pakistan Olympic Association (POA) believes there is only a “50-50 chance” that the accreditations of the new officials of the Pakistan hockey team will be confirmed for the Commomwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia in April.

In an attempt to stop the alarming decline of the national game, the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) last week made some changes to its setup, making chief selector Hasan Sardar the head coach in place of Farhat Khan while replacing assistant coaches Shafqat Malik and Mohammad Sarwar with Rehan Butt and Muhammad Saqlain.

“The last date to submit the names for the final accreditation was November 24 but the POA will make a special request to the organising committee of the Gold Coast to accept the new changes of the PHF,” a POA official told Dawn on the condition of anonymity on Wednesday.

“The chances are 50-50. The POA has conveyed the situation to the PHF in today’s meeting held with the secretaries of the federations who will take part at the Commonwealth Games and we’re waiting for the PHF to forward the changes to us.”

At the meeting at Olympic House, POA chief retired Lt Gen Arif Hasan shared information regarding the Games while Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) director general Dr Akhtar Nawaz Ganjera was also present.

The Games run from April 4 to 20.

Published in Dawn, January 11th, 2018