ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Hockey Federation Secretary Shahbaz Ahmed Senior criticised the national hockey team, saying the current outfit lacked in “intellect and temperament to win matches.” His comments came following team’s pathetic performance at the recently-concluded World Hockey League.
“Playing for the country is a big honour. But I am really dejected to see that our current team has neither fighting spirit nor the will to win,” Shahbaz told APP.
Pakistan at the WHL lost to arch-rivals India 7-1 in their opener, went down to the Netherlands 4-1, and were thrashed 6-0 by Canada.
They somehow managed to qualify for the quarter-final as the fourth team from Group ‘B’ with just one win against Scotland. In the quarter-final, they were beaten 3-1 by world number one Argentina.
Then they again lost to India 6-1 for the fifth position match. They, however, finished seventh in the tournament by beating China 3-1 in the seventh/eighth position match.
Shahbaz said when he took charge in September 2015, he had predicted that the current Pakistan side could not be among the top six teams in the next two years as players lacked confidence and spirit to win.
“Our players just don’t know what sort of hockey they should be playing. They are just passing the time and their sole priority is to play for different leagues.
“The way they lost to India is quite depressing. I have never seen such a spiritless side,” Shahbaz said.
He said the PHF did whatever it could to prepare the players for the important event.
“We’ve spent fifty million rupees on these players during the past three months. We sent them on a 20-day Australia-New Zealand tour to prepare them for the World League. Similarly, they were sent to Ireland 15 days ahead of the event. But at no stage in the tournament, they showed that they wanted to win.
“I was expecting they will bounce back like our cricket team and will make them (cricket team) a role model. But unlike them they kept on making the same mistakes and demonstrated the same poor hockey,” Shahbaz lamented.
He believed the habits of the current players had become so strong that nobody could change them now.
Shahbaz, however, pinned high hopes on Pakistan’s under-18 team stating that it was heading in the right direction.
“The boys in our under-18 team are working hard. They seem eager to win. They have shown great fighting spirit in Australia’s national hockey championship and defeated their top clubs.
“I’m sure our hockey will rise when they become part of the senior hockey team,” Shahbaz added.
