LAHORE, July 13: Former Olympian Khawaja Junaid says the experts' predictions before the team embarked on their European tour on June 3 that the new rules on penalty-corner would help Sohail, proved wrong and the very fact is Pakistan's main concern ahead of Olympic Games.
Junaid, a former captain and also coach of Pakistan team, told reporters on Tuesday, "Sohail needs a minimum of eight penalty-corners to score three goals, but during the European tour Pakistan were limited to only two or three which meant the rivals had prepared a strategy of giving minimum short-corners which ultimately resulted in blocking of Sohail".
The coach Roelant Oltmans had changed combinations several times but has so far failed to come up with a perfect one. "As time is short, the coach must finalised all its wings and a strategy to make a fine combination soon."
He was hopeful that the team could make it to victory-stand but added there was no hope for a gold medal if one analysed their performance on the basis European tour's results.
Junaid said that the ouster of centre-half Muhammad Saqlain at this stage on disciplinary grounds was not a wise step. "The player had the same attitude for last four years then why had he been tolerated on the team for such a long period.
"The PHF has made a lot of investment in Saqlain during last four years despite his attitude problems and the decision to drop him at this stage is not correct," he said.
Saqlain was dropped at the eleventh hour when the team about to leave for Europe on June 3 for injuring a teammate Adnan Maqsood during training at a camp in Karachi.
