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| July 7, 2005 | Thursday | Jumadi-ul-Awwal 29, 1426 |
Ex-Olympian blames team management
LAHORE, July 6: Former Olympian Khawaja Zakauddin on Wednesday blamed the team management for Pakistan’s dismal show in the Junior World Cup in Holland. The defeats at the hands of Australia and Germany and then a drawn game against Argentine ruined team’s prospects for advancing into the semifinals, said the former national coach on Wednesday.
Zaka declared that Pakistan put up poor show because unprofessional handling by the team management otherwise the team was not so bad.
He said there was no consistency in team’s performance and it lacked proper guidance and claimed that it was the duty of the management to produce a star to serve as a role model from whom the team drew much needed inspiration.
Zaka said it was unfortunate the team lacked a hero (like Shahbaz or Hassan Sardar) to inject commitment and motivate players into giving their best.
Recounting past achievement of Pakistan in hockey he said “when we had stars in our ranks, opponents were always seen making plans to counter their moves in the field and these stars always led their team to victory with their astounding performance. Sadly enough today we have no such star in the junior team “, he lamented
Zaka said Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) has prepared the junior team under a long term plan for the Junior Cup but so far results shown by it (team) were far from encouraging.
Team management, he said, knew players shortcomings even before its departure to Holland and surprisingly they failed to overcome these despite being associated with the team for quite a long time”, he regretted.
The former olympian urged the President, PHF, to look into the matter and take appropriate steps to prepare the team for the next Junior World Cup right now.
“If we have to regain glory then we must start our preparations by inducting fresh blood in the team”, he said.—APP
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