Pakistan hockey faces global embarrassment after shocking revelations from their Australia tour

Advertisment


The Pakistan hockey team is in a huge mess after their trip to Australia. On February 18, 2026, Captain Ammad Shakeel Butt spoke to the media at Lahore airport. He was very honest this time. He admitted that a video he made in Sydney was a total lie. The team bosses forced him to say everything was okay because the news had reached India. He did not want to shame his country. But now he is exposing the “servant” treatment the players faced.

The whole trip was a disaster for the boys. When they arrived in Australia, there were no hotel rooms waiting for them. The Pakistan Hockey Federation had taken 10 million rupees from the government but did not pay the hotel bills. The players were stuck on the streets of Sydney for 14 hours with all their bags. They were wandering around Opera Street like homeless people. Ammad said they were hungry and had no food. Eventually, they stayed in a cheap Airbnb that only had room for 10 days.

It gets much worse than that. Ammad said players were forced to do menial chores. They were washing dishes and cleaning kitchens for hours every day. They even had to scrub the toilets and floors before they went out to play international matches. He asked how a player can win against teams like Germany when he is tired from cleaning the washrooms. The team lost every single game they played on the tour. Ammad said the management even tried to split the team by asking boys to pick sides.

Advertisment

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has now ordered a strict probe. The Pakistan Sports Board says the PHF cancelled the official hotel bookings on purpose. Ammad says he is ready to be banned for telling the truth. He wants a foreign coach and professional bosses who actually care about hockey. The players were only given 115 dollars for food, which was not enough. He says the current system is making “mental patients” out of the squad. The government says people will be punished for this.