LAHORE, Nov 4: Pakistan hockey team lacked spirit and motivation against India in recent encounters which resulted in two back-to-back defeats in the Afro-Asian Games in India, declared secretary, Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF), Brig Musarrat Ullah Khan on Tuesday.

“If a team is without spirit and motivation how can it perform against arch rivals,” he claimed while commenting on Pakistan’s two successive defeats to India in the Afro-Asian Games, one in the pool match and the second in the final.

PHF official admitted there were no excuses for the defeats as the team committed the same old mistakes. “Poor goalkeeping and sloppy defensive lapses let the team in the tournament in which we did well against most of the teams and when we played India we repeated the mistakes and paid the price.”

PHF official said goal-keeper Muhammad Qasim gave below par performance and conceded goals which he should not have allowed, besides forwards lacked killer instincts.

He said the team management was equally responsible for the players performance and it did not come up with strategies and plans to counter the opponents, especially the Indians after their loss in a pool match.

Musarrat said its was unfortunate that team handling was not done in a professional manner in crunch situations which was quite evident when it failed to convert penalty strokes and penalty corners against India.

He said it was unfair to say that team failed to perform in the absence of some key players, including veteran goalkeeper Ahmad Alam, penalty corner shooter, Sohail Abbas and forward Shabbir Ahmad.

PHF official hoped with the involvement of a team of foreign professionals the performance of the team will improve in future events.—APP