LAHORE, Nov 23: Pakistan hockey coach Roelant Oltmans stressed that all the other five competitors in the Champions Trophy were equally tough. "I cannot consider any particular side as formidable
," said Oltmans who joined the training camp on Tuesday.
Incidentally, it was also the first day when the camp was held at the newly laid polygrass turf at National Hockey Stadium's main ground. The six-nation event is scheduled to be held at NHS from Dec 4 to 12. Besides Pakistan, the other teams are Holland, Germany, Spain, New Zealand and India.
"All matches are like finals because Champions Trophy is the toughest competition in the game," Oltmans said. Asked if Pakistan did not have an edge over other teams because of recent changes in their squad, Oltmans said "these changes are not on a large scale and I think one or two replacements cannot weaken a team." However, he admitted that home crowd could give his team good support. "I will welcome the local crowd to come to cheer Pakistan team as it will give extra advantage to us," he said.
Oltmans, who had been with the team in last year's Champions Trophy also, expressed his wish that Pakistan win this time as he wanted to make an impact in his one-year assignment.
Queried about his lack of seriousness by joining the camp training only 10 days before the tournament, Oltmans clarified that he was following the same schedule which had been signed between him and Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF).
About inclusion of Mohammad Saqlain, he said that every player would have to perform and the same case was with Saqlain. But asked Saqlain's case was related to discipline and not with performance he said "to me discipline is also a part of performance."
Saqlain was dropped by Oltmans just a day before the Pakistan team departed for European tour prior to Athens Olympics on disciplinary grounds. He said that the newly turf was slippery and it would take time to come in perfect condition.
The coach said that only one warm-up match against New Zealand was enough and denied that he had developed differences with his former assistant coach Tahir Zaman, who had been replaced with another Olympian Asif Bajwa.
Asked to comment on the physical fitness of the players, he said a fitness test would be conducted on Wednesday and after that he could make a comment. Meanwhile, Oltmans expressed his ignorance about any trials being held on Thursday for selecting the 18-member Pakistan team for Dec 4-12 Champions Trophy to be held in Pakistan.
The Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) announced on Tuesday that trials will be held on Thursday from 10am to 11am after which the chief selector Akhtar Rasool will announce the team. "I don't know about trials but we will hold our training session on Thursday," he said. He said that the people who had been with team were the best selectors.
