The Pakistan Hockey Federation has asked the national players to perform or face the music. Talking to journalists here at the National Hockey Stadium, PHF secretary Asif Bajwa said that there was no yardstick to gauge the seniors and the juniors of the team. “For the PHF all the players, be it senior or junior are the same and only the performance matters,” said Bajwa.
The PHF secretary further stated that they had achieved their target to some extent. “The targets were somehow achieved from the European tour and the training matches. The purpose of the practice was to give exposure and experience to the team and the results were not that bad. There overall performance was satisfactory and only the non-performers would have to ship out,” he maintained. When the question of performance was put up on Pakistan forward Rehan Butt, Rehan was surprised for rising doubts about his performance. “Who says that my performance is not up to the mark. The target which was given to me, I achieved. My coaches set a target for me and I fulfilled their expectations,” he added. He further stated that people did not have any idea how many field goals were scored during the whole of the tour and elaborated that just two goals came through field moves. “Only two goals were scored in field moves and rest of the goals were scored through short-corners, in which specialist were instrumental. And judging the performance by the goal counts is not the proper weighing scale,” he said. Pakistan during their European tour played two four-nation competitions and won the Dublin event. They also played New Zealand, Belgium and Holland in practice matches before heading back home.
Now the team will practice an assignment in India and later China before having final preparation for the Champions Trophy after a couple of days. Pakistan will also take part in a four-nation tournament in India also featuring Argentina and New Zealand which will be followed by Asian Championship in which all the top Asian teams will compete.
