LAHORE: Expressing sheer disappointment over the national team’s dismal performance at the ongoing Asia Cup, Pakistan’s legendary Olympian Samiullah Khan has urged the national hockey federation to arrange tough competitions against world’s top sides in order to raise a strong squad for next year’s World Cup.

Mohammad Irfan-led Pakistan lost to Malaysia 2-3 in their first super four stage match of the Asia Cup underway at the Maulana Bhashani Hockey Stadium in Dhaka on Wednesday. Earlier in the pool stage of the continental event before barely making it to the super four stage, the green-shirts were also overwhelmed 1-3 by arch-rivals India. Also in the pool phase, Pakistan, who in their opening pool game comfortably beat hosts and minnows Bangladesh 7-0, were held to a 2-2 draw by not-so-strong Japan.

“I do not want to comment on Pakistan’s performance [in the Asia Cup] because it may discourage our players during the tournament. However, I would only say that unfortunately the team’s show has been weak in almost every department. Therefore, the team needs to put in a lot of hard work to bring a comprehensive improvement in their game,” Samiullah said while talking to Dawn after Pakistan lost the match on Wednesday.

Samiullah, nicknamed ‘Flying Horse’ for his exceptional speed on the hockey field, lamented that the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) had no vision for raising a strong squad as it was working on an ad hoc system.

“There is no need to send the national junior team to Oman. Rather the PHF should arrange maximum number of matches for the national

senior and junior teams against world’s top sides to give our players a proper platform for assessing their talent,” underlined the 66-year-old Samiullah.

“Instead of spending huge amount of funds on futile tournaments like nine-a-side [held recently in Karachi], the PHF should have spent this money on preparing the national team in a better way,” he added.

There are reports that the PHF spent around Rs20 million on the nine-a-side tournament it organised in Karachi, which could not attract local fans at the stadium besides failing to produce tough competition in the matches.

“I ask what benefit the PHF and the players got from such an arbitrary tournament,” he wondered.

“If Pakistan is producing these [poor] results at the Asian level, everyone can guess what the results our team would give against top outfits like Australia, Netherlands, Germany, Belgium and Argentina as field hockey has become a very tough game across the world.”

During the 1-3 loss in the Asia Cup pool game against India, Pakistan head coach Farhat Khan and his defence line seemed to have virtually no plan to stop Indian attacks mostly launched from the left flank, noted Samiullah.

The traditional rivals will again lock horns in the super four stage match on Saturday.

Expressing his dissatisfaction over Pakistan goalkeepers’ show in the Asia Cup, Samiullah stressed “every department of the team should function in coordination” with other departments.

Samiullah urged the PHF to start serious planning for raising a strong squad for the 2018 World Cup, maintaining it still had time to do so.

“But if the PHF continues to work on ad hoc basis, which it has been doing since its inception, the results in future contests, including the World Cup, will not be different.”

Published in Dawn, October 19th, 2017