July 11, 2003	Friday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 10, 1424

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KARACHI, July 10: China hockey coach Khawaja Junaid on Thursday said he has faith in his side’s abilities as they do as ordered a quality which Pakistan players lack.

“I must say Chinese are one good side. They do what I tell them — a quality which is hard to find in Pakistani players,” Junaid a former Pakistan Olympian told reporters.

Although China lost the opener 5-2, Junaid was all praise for his team, saying they were fully capable of becoming a truly formidable side within two or three years.

The coach said he was satisfied with the result given the fact Pakistan were what he called legends in the field of hockey.

He said he was elated to see his side scoring twice against Pakistan Juniors, although they had few handicaps.

He said Pakistan had been facing a slump in hockey fortunes for a long time, they still were a force to be reckoned with and a 5-2 defeat against them was not a disastrous result.

“I am really happy to see my boys score against Pakistan Juniors. My side has been training for the last six months and probably are tired. We have two players on the injury list including our captain Lu Pang who is quite a good defender.

“Then my boys arrived a day before in hot weather of Karachi, are jet-lagged, and had to tackle with a new surface which was quite bouncy as water dried quickly,” he said.

Pakistan Juniors had been training on the same pitch for about a month for the upcoming tour of Europe where they play four- nation tournament in Spain and eight-nation contest in Poland.

Junaid, who was removed as Pakistan team assistant coach that finished fifth at World Cup in Kuala Lumpur last year, said China would emerge as another South Korean side after some hard work and training.

“I will not hesitate in saying that China will be among one of the finest sides as they follow my orders religiously. What they need is good training and hard work. I must warn hockey playing nations to be ware of them,” he said.

Junaid was optimistic about the remaining matches of the series and said he was expecting better results.

China are here to play against Pakistan junior and senior sides as part of their build-up to Beijing 2008 Olympics. They were in Malaysia before coming to Pakistan where they held the hosts 2-2 and lost the other matches 3-1, 3-1 and 1-0.