LAHORE: Former hockey Olympian Samiullah Khan, while expressing his dismay over Pakistan’s loss to Canada in a hockey World League’s match, said the country had to win their upcoming matches against India and Scotland otherwise they will miss the World Cup.

Talking to Dawn, Samiullah said losing 4-0 against the Netherlands could be understandable, as it was a top side, but going down 6-0 against Canada was not at all acceptable.

He added that the future of Pakistan hockey looked bleak as there was no improvement in the game despite huge funds were given to the PHF by the government.

Sami, however, wished good luck to the team for their upcoming matches, especially against India.

He further slammed the incumbent PHF for failing to send their junior team to the Junior World Cup, held in India last year.

“Though the government was serious about improving hockey infrastructure and gives huge fund to the PHF every year, the latter has done nothing significant for betterment of the game, which is declining continuously in the country,” Sami, who was nicknamed Flying Horse, said.

He advised the government that it should analyse performance of the PHF every year and take necessary steps to control the decline.

When asked that Pakistan had another chance to qualify for the World Cup by winning the Asia Cup in September, Samiullah said that was an uphill task because strong teams like India, South Korea and Malaysia would be in fray there.

He, however, appreciated the decision of the FIH of starting a league from 2019 on home and away basis and added that its number of countries should be increased from nine so that the game gets popular among the masses.

Published in Dawn, June 18th, 2017