“It is totally wrong and after losing to us in the field, India is trying to beat us out of the field by pressurizing FIH to ban our players at the eleventh hour,” Rana Mujahid said.
“Sometimes in the heat players get swayed away and do something undesirable and unwarranted action. The chapter should have been closed after Coach Shahnaz Sheikh apologized to FIH but Indians are blowing it out of proportion,” he said.
“We have now been entangled into a controversy when we must have totally been focusing on the final against Germany. We would now for a while focus on the final and later we will register our protest at a proper forum,” he added.
Although initially FIH accepted the apology made by Pakistan hockey team coach Shahnaz Sheikh, FIH has now banned two Pakistani players Mohammad Tauseeq and Amjad for one match apparently for the gestures they made during celebrating their Champions Trophy victory.
Tournament director Wiert Doyer, who investigated the incident, let off the players without any action after Pakistan coach Shahnaz Sheikh apologized on their behalf.
The hockey international body, FIH’s decision came after Narinder Batra lashed out at the International Hockey Federation (FIH) for not taking action against the Pakistanis and threatened not to host world tournaments in future.
“I am instructing my CEO to inform FIH that in case this kind of behaviour by teams is within normal and tolerable limits of FIH, then we may not be interested to host any more tournaments in India,” he wrote.
He also wrote that India would not schedule any bilateral matches with the neighbors unless the Pakistan Hockey Federation issued an “unconditional apology.”
Apart from banning the two players, FIH has also gave warning to Shafqat Rasool.
The banning of the two members of the squad, which scripted the humiliating Indian defeat, has come as a big blow for Pakistan, who would be facing a tough German side in climax of the tournament.
