National hockey team skipper Sohail Abbas on Sunday said Pakistan have a very good chance of winning gold medal in the London Olympic Games this year.
“I am confident that we (our team) will put in their maximum effort in training and that will be visible through our performance. While having complete faith in Allah, and working hard in training and going with the positive intent of performing, we can be very hopeful of having a good chance,” Sohail said.
Sohail further said that the team’s job was to put in efforts and the rest was in Allah’s power, he told Pakpassion.net.
“With all help of the prayers, we are confident that as a team we will perform well and strive to be in the top four,” he said.
Talking about the Indo-Pak encounter in the Olympics, Sohail said in Olympics, every match was equally important and “we will treat each one as a final, not taking any one match lightly or easy”.
Commenting about the team participating in the Azlan Shah tournament which will be played on blue turf, Sohail said that the team had never practised or played in such conditions. “These things will call for some adjusting to the play conditions but I am confident that we will be able to get accustomed to these conditions fairly easily,” he said.
Responding to a question, Sohail said player should also be passionate towards the game of hockey and the entire team should play as one unit. “If you play as a team, all these things don’t matter. Once you stop playing as a team, that’s when these factors about them being physically bigger and stronger come into play,” he said.
Sohail, who also watches cricket and follows it when he’s on a tour, said, “I make sure to follow Pakistan’s matches when on tour. When we have lengthy training sessions over four, five, or six days, we often time go to the management saying that we need to rest and relax and play cricket.” However, he said that the players who did take part in the camp worked hard and will be training with the rest of the players in Malaysia for five days which will help them gel together. Talking about the blue turf at the Azlan Shah Cup, Abbas said he was not really bothered about it as the team will have about five days to get adjusted to it.