April 25, 2008	Friday	Rabi-us-Sani 18, 1429

LAHORE, April 24: Pakistan hockey team’s assistant coach, Olympian Mohammad Shahbaz on Thursday resigned from his post after his name was removed by the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) from the coaching panel for the second part of national team’s forthcoming tour of Europe.

Shahbaz had only been included in the national team’s first assignment — the Azlan Shah Cup — to be held in Ipoh, Malaysia from May 8. The PHF had planned to call him back after that while the team would have continued for its European tour.

“As coach, I should be accompanying the team to be able to note the players’ shortcomings during the matches. But I am not being given an opportunity to remain with the team on the European tour and doing half the job seems rather useless to me,” said Shahbaz while addressing a press conference at the offices of the Punjab Hockey Association here on Thursday.

Criticising PHF President Zafarullah Khan Jamali for his policies, Shahbaz said nothing had been done for the betterment of the game during Jamali’s tenure and the national team’s standards had only gone down.

Later, PHF Secretary Khalid Mahmood said that he had met Shahbaz on Thursday morning and the assistant coach had expressed his wish to accompany the team to Europe. “I told him that the PHF was facing financial problems at the moment but things were getting better and he could expect to be part of the team to Europe,” said Khalid. “But instead of waiting and watching the situation, he decided to quit.”

“There used to be five or six coaches working with the national side during our time but only one of them accompanied the team on foreign tours, so this is nothing new,” he said.

The secretary was also concerned about Shahbaz holding a press conference and said he would ask the Punjab Hockey Association officials to explain why such a thing was allowed.