Pakistan hockey team manager and former Olympian Anjum Saeed was offloaded in Brazil for smoking on a plane during refuelling. He and a player were denied boarding to Dubai. The Pakistan Sports Board has called for an independent inquiry, calling the incident serious and damaging to Pakistan sports. Pakistan had a disappointing FIH Pro League debut.

Karachi: Well-known hockey olympian Anjum Saeed, who accompanied the senior Pakistan team to the FIH Pro League in Argentina as manager, landed himself in trouble after being offloaded in Brazil for smoking on the airplane while it was refuelling at the Rio de Janeiro airport.

Anjum, along with a Pakistan player, was not allowed to board the plane to Dubai after he was found smoking when the flight stopped in Brazil for refuelling.

Anjum, a defender and midfielder who played in the Olympics semifinal in 1992 and was in the squad that won the World Cup and Champions Trophy in 1994, was sent as manager to Argentina but after returning home this week, he is now claiming he didn't come back with the team because of some personnel work in Dubai.

But an official in the Pakistan Sports Board said they had asked the Pakistan Hockey Federation to hold an independent inquiry into the incident as the incident doesn't reflect well on Pakistan sports.

The official said they had gathered their own information but wanted to see what the PHF would do now as it was a serious matter.

"Apparently the matter was escalated by Anjum and another player when the manager was confronted for smoking on the airplane as it refuelled," he said.

Pakistan didn't have a good outing in their first ever FIH Pro League appearance.

(Except for the headline, this article has not been edited by FPJ's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)