Pakistan Hockey Federation President Qasim Zia has pointed out that the team has shown confidence in the opening match of the Azlan Shah Cup Hockey that rolled into action at Ioph, Malaysia on Thursday.
Talking to journalists, he said that the new look Pak team took a fine start in the Azlan Shah Cup by beating Argentina convincingly.
“It is good to see the team putting up a confident boosting performance o take a much needed start in the tournament,” he said.
PHF Chief termed Azlan Shah cup a “tough team tournament“, as world’s top six teams are taking part in the event which is a good preparations for Olympics.
“All the six teams have qualified for the London Olympics and it is very beneficial for our team to play with these teams to get high quality match practice for the Olympics,” he asserted.
Qasim Zia praised the talent of young talent of the team and said the six junior players have performed to a highest level in league with their senior players.
“The presence of junior players in the side strongly endorse the stance of PHF for securing better future of the game,” he said.
“We firmly believe these youngsters will keep doing hard work to be a useful part of the team in its coming ties of Azlan Shah Cup.“
Qasim said beating Argentina is a decent result on part of Pakistan team as the Argentinian side always proved a superior rival during past four years in international events.
“It is a good beginning but we have to play a number of matches in the tournament and all depends how our team performs in its coming assignments,” said PHF Chief.
Qasim Zia said the team management under the guidance of former Olympian, Akhtar Rasool is doing a lot to improve the performance of the team and a lot of hopes are pinned with the team management to take measures for inspiring the team to success in the coming matches.
“Our aim is to prepare the team for Olympics and participation in Azlan Shah and then the tour of Europe are the two important assignments to achieve this objective,” he said adding “These two events would help in finalizing our squad for Olympics and will also reveal our prospects in Olympics”.
