LAHORE, Sept 15: Weak defence and forward-line, the grey areas of Pakistan team which were exposed during the Champions Trophy last month have been improved, hockey captain Mohammad Nadeem said on Monday.

“The forward line is also the first defence of a team and if it works properly you will not have to worry,” the skipper said after attending a reception held by Royal Palm Country Golf Club in honour of the team on Sunday night.

Asia Cup is scheduled to be held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia from Sept 21 to 28. The Pakistan team will leave for Malaysia on Tuesday night.

Nadeem said FIH Master coach Tayyab Ikram was also approached by the PHF who gave tips and made strategy for Asia Cup after watching shortcomings of the team in the Champions Trophy.

“Tayyab had pointed out useful points and the team coach Tahir Zaman did a lot of work to prepare a strong team,” Nadeem added.

He said the defence would work effectively when its forward-line came to assist its half-line and the defence received support from the half-line.

He said Pakistan should win the Asia Cup to end the winning drought.

However, he said that India, South Korea and Malaysia were tough rivals and he would not take them lightly.

Nadeem said he did not consider India as a weak side as the arch-rivals would be missing penalty corner striker Jugraj Singh due to injury in a road accident.

He added India had many talented players in their rank.

“Jugraj is their penalty corner specialist but as a field player he is not a threatening,” Nadeem said.

When pointed out that Pakistan’s penalty corner specialist Sohail Abbas was also merely good at short corners, and not a good field player, Nadeem replied, Sohail was a lethal weapon for the rivals, Nadeem said that Sohail had improved his game while playing in league in Germany this year.

The junior and senior players of Pakistan should play in league in Germany because there were lot of opportunities to improve the game, Nadeem, who made the headlines by going Germany along with Sohail and Mohammad Waseem without PHF’s permission, suggested.

Nadeem said that South Korea had also rebuilt its team while Malaysia always played better in front of home crowd.

Nadeem said that he was making his mind to call it a day after the Athens Olympics next year.

“I have played international hockey for a good number of years and I think I will not be able to play internatio-nal hockey after a year,” he added.

“Furthermore, I have signed a contract with my German club till 2006 and heavy schedule of the Pakistan team would not allow me to play for my country,” he said.

Earlier, speaking at the function, manager Abdul Rashid Junior and coach Tahir Zaman vowed Pakistan would bring the Asia Cup as their side was fully prepared for the contest.