New Delhi: The relation between India and Pakistan, in the arena of sports, further deteriorated on Monday, when the International Hockey Federation (FIH) dropped Pakistan from the Junior World Cup to be played in Lucknow next month.

The FIH's decision to withdraw the invitation to Pakistan and replace them with Malaysia came after the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) failed to get visas for its team. The FIH is headed by India's Narinder Batra. He was the president of Hockey India (HI) till two days back.

While Batra said that decision to grant visas solely depended on the government, sources revealed the Indian federation did not make enough effort to convince the ministry of external affairs in Delhi to issue the necessary permission to the Pakistan team.

The FIH, in a statement, said: "FIH regrets that Pakistan's men's junior team will not be able to take part in this year's Uttar Pradesh Hockey Junior World Cup even though they had officially qualified... FIH's decision follows considerable discussions with the PHF and requests for confirmation that they had the necessary arrangements in place to be able to participate in the event."

The PHF alleged that the Indian High Commission kept their players waiting for the visas till Monday, the deadline for PHF to confirm the participation in the event and finally did not issue it.