Sakyasen Mittra
Post News Network
Bhubaneswar, Dec 14: Two Pakistani hockey players were suspended and one was reprimanded for making obscene gestures after their team’s semi-final win over India, the sport’s governing body said Sunday.
Muhammad Tousiq and reserve goalkeeper Ali Amjad were handed a one-match ban that sidelined them from the final of the eight-nation tournament against Germany later here.
Shafqat Rasool was reprimanded for the same offence, the International Hockey Federation (FIH) announced after conducting a hearing with Pakistan coach Shahnaz Sheikh and the players earlier in the day.
“The above-mentioned players were seen making gestures that are considered to be obscene,” the FIH said in a statement without elaborating. The body had earlier cleared Pakistan of any wrongdoing.
Tournament director Wiert Doyer, who investigated the incident soon after the match, had let the players off without any action after Shahnaz apologised for their actions.
The FIH u-turn Sunday came a few hours after Hockey India chief Narinder Batra demanded an unconditional apology from Pakistan and called for strict action by the governing body.
“I am instructing my CEO to inform FIH that in case this kind of behaviour by teams is not within normal and tolerable limits of FIH, then we may not be interested to host more tournaments in India,” Batra said.
“The tournaments may be shifted to countries which tolerate this kind of nonsense and uncouth behaviour.” India is due to host the 2018 World Cup. Batra also threatened to sever all ties with the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) unless they issued an unconditional apology.
In a separate statement released by the FIH Sunday, Shahnaz issued a fresh apology on behalf of the PHF. “The incident…involved behaviour that is considered unacceptable to Pakistan Hockey Federation,” he was quoted as saying.