Hockey coach Tauqir Dar on Friday announced that he will not continue after the national team’s dismal exit from the ongoing World Cup in the Indian city of Bhubaneswar.
Talking to journalists, Tauqir said his assignment was only for the World Cup, and he has conveyed to the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) that he is no more available for the job.
Tauqir said he has asked team manager Hasan Sardar to advise the PHF to sack senior players and induct young blood into national team.
“If we have to face big 5-0 defeats at the hands of Belgium and the Netherlands with these seniors it is better to say goodbye to them and bring in new blood to prepare them in the next couple of years for cut-throat international contests,” Tauqir said. “I am quite satisfied with my work at grassroots level, running Dar Hockey Academy [in Lahore], and am not interested in any PHF post.”
Tauqir, a member of the Pakistan team which last won Olympic gold medal at the 1984 Los Angles Games, said he took charge as team’s head coach just 20 days before the World Cup as Hasan asked him to do so.
Pakistan, a former four-time World Cup winners who last clinched the global title back in 1994, miserably failed to break the jinx of the poor performances in Bhubaneswar as they crashed out in the second round and could not even win a single match out of four they played at the 16-nation spectacle.