Thirsty hockey players wander outside Karachi stadium in search of water

A video of two hockey players wandering outside Karachi's Abdul Sattar Edhi Hockey Stadium in search of water during the National Hockey Championship has gone viral.

The two players, sporting light blue kits, were spotted by AAP News reporter Zeeshan Ahmed with an empty water cooler at what appears to be a water dispensation plant adjacent to the stadium.

When asked why they were outside the stadium when action was happening inside it, one of the players said: "There is no water inside. The match is taking place but we are here for the water. The players inside need water."

"It is [the management's] responsibility. When we ask them they tell us that water is coming. This was half an hour ago. What can we say."

With no water at the plant, the two players were forced to return back to the stadium empty-handed. 

The Noor Khan National Hockey 2019 kicked off in Karachi on Tuesday (July 23). It is set to feature 20 teams from all over Pakistan, according to the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) website.

'No potable water, electricity'

Reports and videos circulating on Twitter suggest that the event has been marred with a plethora of mismanagement issues.

"We got here after a 32-hour journey," another participant said. "We had thought that the PHF must have made some decent arrangements but unfortunately there was nothing of this sort. 

"There is no potable water here and whatever water there is, is saline water. We cannot even bathe with it let alone drink. We have to walk 2-3kms just to drink water and bathe. The facilities that players should get, especially when the players pay a fee to participate in this tournament, we aren't getting any of that."

"The powers that be should look into this. This is such a massive tournament; it's the 61st national championship so we should also get the facilities.

"Then there is the outage problem. We got here yesterday and power went out at two in the morning and this is almost noon, it still hasn't come back.

"We have a match at 3pm. We are not at all prepared mentally. We are sleep deprived, we have water and food problems. When we are facing these issues how would we play?"

'Living among lizards, cockroaches'

Another player corroborated the problems, adding that "[PHF Secretary] Asif Bajwa should think about this and should have made arrangements in advance. We arrived here in a coach late at night, then we could not sleep due to electricity and now this."

A third player echoed the others' sentiments, saying: "We have been forced to stay at a place where even the animals can't stay. 

The water and electricity issues aside, there are lizards and cockroaches in beds. There is unbearable smell too. I can say that this is not a place for human beings to live at.

According to PHF website, Olympian Abdul Hanif Khan is the tournament director of the National Hockey Championship.

"We will decide about the cash prizes and other incentives in next couple of days, as we are expecting sizable sponsorship from the private sector. We are trying to conduct the tournament in a befitting manner," President Brig (R) Khalid Sajjad Khokhar had said last week when announcing the tournament.