LAHORE, Dec 19: Pakistan hockey coach Asif Bajwa on Monday admitted that the team’s performance in the Champions Trophy was below par and cited three reasons for it. Pakistan came fifth in the six-nation contest held in Chennai, India from Dec 10 to 18.

Pakistan could barely avoid relegation in the next edition to be held in Spain after they beat India 4-3 in a classification match. Talking to reporters on his arrival from India, Asif said that first of all the boys were in doubt about the availability of captain Mohammad Saqlain who faced a three-match ban imposed on him by FIH for injuring Australian player Craig Victory in Hamburg Masters tournament in August this year.

The ban was lifted by the IOC, temporarily, days before the start of the event, while accepting Saqlain’s appeal to review his punishment.

“The players might have been in two frames of mind, as the Saqlain episode must have impact on their performance,” Bajwa claimed.

To him the weather in Chennai was the second reason. “Heavy rains did not allow us to have maximum practice session while the boys also failed to acclimatise to the weather,” he said.

Thirdly, ace forward Shabbir retired hurt in the outset, he added.

However, Bajwa agreed that his team was quite capable of winning the pool matches against Australia, Germany and India.

Pakistan drew with Australia, the ultimate winners of the title for the eighth time, and also drew against Germany while losing to India, the Netherlands and Spain in pool matches.

He dispelled the impression that the team lost because it showed complacency after winning the Rabo Bank tournament in Holland in August.

“The win in Holland was history and we made the best of preparations for the Champions Trophy considering it entirely different and the toughest competition, but we failed to perform to our true potential,” he remarked.

Pakistan started off on a bad note, losing the first match to India, second to Holland and third to Spain but showed fighting spirit in the last two matches against Germany and Australia to play drawn games.

Bajwa said that though Pakistan averted relegation from the Champions Trophy, the overall performance was not satisfactory.