July 4, 2003	Friday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 3,1424

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LAHORE, July 3: Former Olympian Abdul Rashid Junior returned to hockey management after eight years of absence when he was appointed team manager following the resignation of Shahnaz Sheikh.

Rashid will be facing a tough task as he has been appointed only 43 days before one of the toughest competitions — the Champions Trophy — in The Netherlands from Aug 16.

Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) secretary Brig Musarrat Ullah Khan told a press conference on Thursday that it was the only change in the team management and the federation had no plans to make changes till the Olympic Games.

Coach Tahir Zaman and his assistant Shahid Ali Khan have been retained, while another Olympian Qamar Ibraheem has been inducted as video analyst.

Rashid, was demoted and promoted in his short previous tenure during 1993 to 95. He has two wins to his credit as manager including the Champions Trophy in Lahore in 1994 and the World Cup in Sydney the same year.

Asked whether Rashid would be able to handle the affairs despite being absent from the scene for such a long time, the secretary said the former Olympian was away from PHF but not from hockey.

He said the decision was taken after thorough discussions with chief selector Akhtar Rasool and Rashid’s consent was sought before taking the decision.

The secretary said Tahir had been retained as he was the “finest coach” from among the lot of five to six young coaches. He said the decision of retaining Tahir showed PHF wanted to keep continuity.

Tahir was the chief coach of the squad which gave a miserable performance in last year’s three major events. The team was thrashed by minnows New Zealand 7-1 in the Commonwealth Games semifinal, barely managed third place at Champions Trophy, and lost 4-2 to Malaysia in the Busan Asian Games in the third place playoff.

Following the defeats, team manager Col Zafar Ali Khan tendered his resignation but Tahir stuck to his post and was later demoted as assistant coach after the appointment of Shahnaz as coach last November.

PHF secretary had claimed that there could be 20 reasons of defeats and one could be that some senior players were not “cooperating” with Tahir due to little age difference between them and their coach.

Asked whether he was sure such controversies would not be repeated the secretary said “Rashid’s role will be like a father figure which will prevent such thing in the future.”

Brig Musarrat, however, parried the question and could only smile when asked does that mean Zafar failed to act and give what he was required to do which resulted in non-cooperation of senior players with Tahir.

The secretary claimed PHF always desired to promote understanding, continuity and power of making the decisions in the team management.

He said that the negotiations were under way to hire the services of a foreign coach for a short period with the consent of the current team management.

“PHF has contacted three foreign coaches but talks are in initial stages, therefore, no confirm information is available at this moment,” he said.

He said that a Dutch physiotherapist would be arranged for the team for the Champions Trophy.

The secretary, who recently attended Asian Hockey Federation (AHF) meeting in South Korea, said the Asian body had changed the dates of Asia Cup from Sept 11-17 to Sept 20-28. The competition is scheduled to be held in Kuala Lumpur.

Similarly, the dates of Junior Asia Cup which is to be organized in Karachi next year in March will be held from April 21 to 29.

AHF had also approved a plan of PHF to hold regional level course for umpiring and coaches each during the Gen Musa Cup in Quetta in August.

Meanwhile, sanity prevailed when PHF reversed its decision of asking Wapda to hold inquiry into the disciplinary cases against two national players and former manager Shahnaz Sheikh.

Pakistan full-back Sohail Abbas and left-half Waseem Ahmad, who represent Wapda went without the prior approval of PHF. Wapda had alleged that both the players went to play in league in Germany on coach Shahnaz’s instigation.

Shahnaz, who was later promoted as manager, denied the charges and would serve a legal notice on Wapda asking them to prove the allegations or face a legal action.

Wapda had appointed an inquiry officer and were contemplating asking Shahnaz to appear before the inquiry officer.