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| October 11, 2002 | Friday | Sha'aban 4, 1423 |
Officials blame umpiring for defeat
BUSAN, Oct 10: Pakistan hockey team officials Thursday blamed questionable umpiring for their 4-3 defeat against India, urging the International Hockey Federation (FIH) to introduce a replay umpire.
“Doubtful decisions robbed us from a possible victory and things went wrong in the crucial match,” said team manager Col Zafar Ali Khan and coach Tahir Zaman in the post-match press conference.
But at the same time they admitted that their team’s performance was not up to mark. They added unnecessary punishments during the match upset the players and eventually resulted in poor show.
“Our main striker (Mohammad) Nadeem was given a unjustified red card and the punishment was stronger than the offence he committed,” Zafar said.
Both the officials said playing with 10 players for 22 minutes disrupted the flow of the team and the side came in patches, despite adverse circumstances, to overcome opponents.
“We fought bravely but our overall performance was not match winning,” they confessed.
Zafar called upon the FIH not to appoint neutral non-Asian umpires during the Asian Games and said a number of qualified Asian umpires were available.
But Tahir was a step ahead and raised his concern about the umpiring, asking the FIH to introduce a replay umpire to judge some crucial decisions which can change the fate of the matches.
“It is the right time that FIH should implement the idea of third umpire to judge some doubtful decisions,” he said.
“Appointment of the replay umpires will ensure a good future of the game and will make it controversy-free,” he added.
The team officials said some doubtful decisions put his side under pressure, which his side failed to overcome.
“If you are playing with 10 players you cannot win and that happened with us today,” he said.
But the Indian management did not comment on the standard of umpiring in the match and when repeatedly asked they said “no comments ..”
Indian manager Hardeep Singh Dillion said his side played to its best and deserved to win.
“By ousting Pakistan from the tournament, we have avenged the 4-3 defeat at Champions Trophy in Germany,” he said and added “I feel comfortable after defeating Pakistan”.
He said the match produced excellent display of Asian style of hockey but refused that his players were involved in rough play.
“Such incidents (yellow, red cards) happen when two top teams play and I will say that we played the best game of the tournament,” he said.
“I asked my boys to play responsible hockey and they followed what I asked them. I feel quite relaxed after beating a strong opponent,” he maintained.—APP
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