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| March 29, 2006 | Wednesday | Safar 28, 1427 |
Pakistan badly needs back-up, says Mansoor
ISLAMABAD, March 28: Former hockey Olympian Mansoor Ahmed on Tuesday stressed the need for raising two junior teams in order to provide adequate back-up to the senior string. “At the moment we have no proper junior side from which players could be called up to support the problem-plagued senior team,” Mansoor told Dawn.
“Because of no immediate replacements we are today left with no choice but to continue with the same lot of players for another year.”
Pakistan’s worries on the eve of the World Cup qualifiers, seemed to mount after the team led by Mohammad Saqlain managed a silver at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne that closed on Sunday.
Although a silver was an improvement on the bronze finish at Manchester four years ago yet Mansoor expressed concern over the results during the course of the tournament Down Under.
“I think luck played a major hand in Pakistan’s progress to the final against Australia as some of the scorelines reflect,” said Mansoor, a member of Pakistan’s 1994 World Cup winning squad.
The team started off well in the tournament defeating India 4-1 followed by a 7-1 thrashing of minnows Trinidad.
But they barely managed to draw their match against South Africa 1-1 and beat Malaysia by the skin of their teeth 6-5.
In the semifinals the side scraped past England courtsey golden goal.
“We did not go all out in the final and neither the attack nor the defence could stand up against the might of the home team.” Pakistan were blanked 3-0.
“The need of the hour is to have an under-14 and under-17 team in order to cover the massive gap. Doing so is very important because some of the senior players won’t be around for too long.”
“We have no replacements for goalkeepers Salman Akbar and Nasir Ahmed and also there are no substitutes for some of the other positions,” Mansoor himself a goalkeeper pointed out.
He urged the hockey managers to pick and choose tournaments instead of competing in every event.
“We should aim for the ranking competitions and prepare accordingly.”
Pakistan have not won a major title since capturing the World Cup in Sydney in 1994. The side finished a dismal fifth in the six-team Champions Trophy last December just escaping relegation.
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