LAHORE, June 2: Former Olympians, Munir Dar and Khawaja Zakauddin, have criticised the performance of the Pakistan team for finishing a poor last in the four-team hockey tournament in Australia.

Besides Pakistan, the other teams in the competition were Australia, Australia “A” and India. Pakistan lost all four matches.

Talking to Dawn, Munir Dar said that the team’s performance proved that the introduction of new faces to substitute the seniors had not been effective.

Munir claimed that in the absence of three senior players, namely Muhammad Nadeem, Sohail Abbas and Wasim Ahmad he had anticipated such poor results.

All three players were excluded from the team after they did not report to the training camp and preferred to play league hockey in Germany.

Munir remarked that the team had only two World class players in Sohail and Nadeem and there was no one to replace them.

He admitted that Sohail had some flaws as a full-back but his ability of scoring goals through penalty-corner was outstanding.

He suggested that the PHF should sit down and decide once for all what kind of hockey Pakistan should play in future.

He contended that Asian hockey had finished after various changes had been made in the rules.

“They are neither playing Asian hockey nor European. They have forgotten their own style while copying others” Munir lamented.

He said that 3+3+4 or 2+4+4 style could be effective for the Pakistan team.

Munir urged the players to concentrate on their play instead of chasing money.

When asked if lack of technical expertise in the PHF is creating hurdles in building up a strong team, the former Olympian stated that it may be possible however, he added that PHF was providing best available facilities to the players and now it was upto them to deliver the goods.

“The players are now earning money but greed for money is dangerous as the dignity of the nation should be the top priority of the players”, he said.

Zaka said that although he was not expecting a miracle from the team but he had hoped that they would at least beat Australia A. He said being defeated twice by the ‘A’ team disappointed the entire nation.

Zaka came out in support of the three players who missed the tour for playing in the German league.

“Yes” the seniors committed a blunder, but now it is time to forget the nightmare and look ahead as the time for Champions Trophy is running short”, he said.

Both Munir and Zaka also criticised the decision of not including Muhammad Sarwar in the team.