LAHORE: Ex-Olympian Saeed Khan has been appointed as head coach and manager of the Pakistan hockey team before the start of the FIH Pro League where Pakistan play their first match against Argentina on Feb 2.

Though the official press release of the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) did not mention any specific period for Saeed’s assignment, it stated that it has been made for the Pro League.

Saeed will deal with two jobs — in place of Hasan Sardar as manager as well as replacing Tauqir Dar as head coach. Both these officials have already tendered their resignations in the wake of Pakistan team’s disastrous campaign in the last World Cup-2018 played in India.

The PHF has already retained two assistant coaches of the World Cup team, namely Danish Kaleem and Rehan Butt.

“President, Pakistan Hockey Federation, retired Brigadier Khalid Sajjad Khokhar has appointed double World Cup winner Saeed Khan as the manager/head coach of the Pakistan team for the FIH Pro League.

“Saeed was a member of Pakistan’s World Cup-winning teams of 1978 and 1982. He has had coaching assignments with the Pakistan national teams in the past including the highly successful year of 1994 when the green shirts won the World Cup and the Champions Trophy,” a PHF press release said.

Saeed’s last assignment with the PHF was as the head coach of the Pakistan women’s team at the Asian Games Qualifiers held in Thailand in January 2018. But a controversy had erupted when female players levelled allegations of harassment against Saeed. However, the PHF stood by Saeed at the time, giving him a clean chit in the case.

Published in Dawn, January 5th, 2019