LAHORE: Legendary Olympians Shahnaz Sheikh and Islahuddin Siddiqi have been named as head coach-cum-manager and chief selector of the Pakistan team respectively while another ex-Olympian Manzoor-ul-Hasan Sr retains his post as head coach-cum-manager of the national junior team.

While the senior team management and selection committee will work till the 2016 Olympics, the junior team management will work until the next Junior World Cup.

“All the appointments have been made with complete consensus in the 27th Executive Board meeting here on Wednesday,” Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) secretary Rana Mujahid told a press conference here on Wednesday where he was flanked by Shahnaz, Islahuddin and Shahbaz Senior.

Announcing the details, Rana said Shahnaz would be assisted by other coaches like Nasir Ali, Malik Shafqat, Sameer Hussain and Abuzar Umrao while junior team coach Manzoor-ul-Hassan Senior would have the services of coaches like Qamar Ibraheem, Kamran Ashraf, Rehan Butt, M Irfan Senior, and Ikhlaq Ahmad.

In the selection committee, Islahuddin as head of the committee will have the services of ex-Olympians Ayaz Mahmood, Arshad Chaudhry, Khalid Bashir and Mussadiq Hussain. “The national selection committee has again been restored after reviewing its importance and further modifying its status. It will now also watch the performances of the players in all the domestic tournaments besides picking up the national and junior teams with the consent of their respective team managements,” elaborated Rana.

However, while all three including Rana, Shahnaz and Islahuddin have repeatedly been claiming there are no difference or conflict among the Olympians over any post, Manzoor Junior’s case belied that notion. When Rana was reminded that the PHF had not kept its promise with Manzoor Junior of making him the chief selector, Rana said he was the original choice but later the consensus developed on Islahuddin in the Executive Board meeting. “Manzoor Jr is with us and we have an appropriate office for him,” clarified Rana .

Meanwhile, the PHF secretary also said that former Olympian and head coach Tahir Zaman had been given the assignment of coaching director.

“From the grass-roots level to top level, Tahir will give a well-prepared hockey syllabus which will decide what kind of hockey will be played in Pakistan and on which lines,” said Rana. “Tahir will also prepare the coaches.”

However, it was learnt that Tahir will have no jurisdiction over the team managements of either the senior or the junior teams. He further said if the team managements want to take any help from Tahir, he would be available for them.

He said the Executive Board had also formed a reconciliation committee headed by Islahuddin, with Shahbaz Senior, Akhtar-ul-Islam and Shahid Ali Khan as members, which will continue to convince remaining disgruntled Olympians like Samiullah, Salim Nazim, Saqlain and others to join the PHF for the betterment of hockey.

He said the restriction on players aged 30 or more for featuring in the National Hockey Championships has been reviewed and now it has been fixed at 35 years.

To a question, Rana said the PHF posts meant nothing for legendary men like Shahnaz, Islah and other hockey greats and they had only accepted the same as challenge for the betterment of hockey in Pakistan.

“These Olympians were our captains in the past and also today,” he said showing utmost respect to his seniors. “We have decided that all of us will work without salary till the time that PHF coffers are brimming,” he said. “Yes the PHF has received a grant from the Punjab government and we will receive more and for that we are extremely grateful to Punjab CM, sports minister and D.G Sports Board Punjab,” said Rana.

He said both Shahnaz and Islahuddin would set the future’s targets and the PHF’s job would only be to facilitate them. “In future, all the questions about the team performance will be referred to Shahnaz,” he said.

To a question, he said the Pakistan team would compete in the 2014 Asian Games at all cost. The national team’s representation in the Games is in doldrums owing to the differences between the Inter-provincial Ministry and Gen Arif Hassan’s Pakistan Olympic Association which is the only body to have the authority to send the team for the Asiad.

Meanwhile, Shahnaz said his first target is the Asian Games as Pakistan will have to defend its title to also qualify for the 2016 Olympics.

“I will be working to improve the players’ skills in areas such as ball-possession, to reduce the missing ratio to 40 per cent from existing 65 and to improve the physical strength of the players,” said Shahnaz.

Also speaking on the occasion, Islahuddin said: “PHF president Akhtar Rasool came over to us just for the sake of national hockey cause and listened to our criticism and observations with an open heart and mind. He then accepted all our suggestions after which we decided to join the PHF to jointly make an effort to revive the past glory of the game,” Islah said.

Meanwhile, Shahbaz Senior requested the media to give due respect to the legendary Olympians for their efforts to revive the game in the country. “Rana had met me in Jeddah just for the cause of hockey and I did not demand any post in return for my services, so it is not right to say that former Olympians came to join the PHF just for the perks,” he contended.

While Shahnaz Sheikh has been given the coaching job for the third time, Islah has been appointed chief selector for a second time. Under Shahnaz in 1998, Pakistan won silver medal in the Champions Trophy, another silver in the 1999 Asia Cup and won gold medals in the Azlan Shah Cup in 1999 and 2003.

Islah selected the team for the 2008 Olympics where it ended a poor eighth.