Turkey-based coach-cum-trainer Al-Dughaither sacked by PTF

KARACHI: Pakistan Tennis Federation (PTF) has sacked Turkey-based coach-cum-trainer Al-Dughaither who had been hired in February this year.“We did not want to continue with him once he finished his probation period,” said Khawar Hayat, a senior PTF official, while talking to ‘The News’. He did not give any reason why Al-Dughaither was not retained. “We have just released him,” he said.Al-Dughaither is a Level-II coach, having previously been engaged in coaching in the UAE. He played for Poland at junior level. PTF had hired him for six months for the National Training Centre (NTC) but sacked him before the completion of the period.A source associated with PTF told ‘The News’ that financial constraints were the reason behind this move. “The government has stopped annual grants of sports federations. It seems PTF is going through hard times, so they released this Turkish coach,” said the source.He said this move put a big question about the future of the centre as Al-Dughaither had been specially hired for this project. It is worth adding here that the NTC was inaugurated in August 2017. It was expected to be run by former Davis Cuppers Hamid-ul-Haq and Mushaf Zia.But PTF did not take them on board and struck a deal with Turkish trainer Celikel Faruk in January this year but he backed out for some personal reasons. PTF offered $1500 per month to Faruk to run the NTC.It is pertinent to mention here that PTF’s decision to hire Al-Dughaither had attracted strong criticism from local tennis fraternity. A seasoned local coach showed his anger by stating that it was absurd to hire a foreign coach when there were qualified coaches available in Pakistan. “We have Kamran Khalil who is a level-III coach and we have Mehboob Khan who was the first Pakistani to do PTR course in the United States decades ago,” said the coach.He added that even if PTF hired local coaches, they humiliated them by offering very low wages. “They don't even offer $500 to local coaches for the same job,” he lamented.“Once the federation called Mehmood Khan from Peshawar for NTC and offered him just Rs30,000 per month which came to around 216 dollars, but they offered 1500 dollars to Faruk for the same job,” said the coach. “Turkey is a tennis nation and a coach who doesn't get job there and comes to Pakistan must be a poor coach,” reasoned the coach.

from The News International - Sports http://bit.ly/2ZfWuVa