0
KARACHI: Looking ahead to some sound advice and constructive criticism, the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) on Monday invited some 42 former Olympians for a meeting next week at their headquarters at the National Hockey Stadium in Lahore.
“We are hoping for some good to come out of it,” PHF Secretary Asif Bajwa told Dawn.
“Our doors are always open for any kind of helpful suggestion. Maybe we can all sit together and reach a common consensus and evolve a suitable strategy before next year’s London Olympics,” he added.
Asked what kind of consensus were they expected to reach anyway, the former fullback, who is himself an Olympian, said:
“Well, they are our national heroes and I am sure they can contribute a lot to the national cause while adding to our efforts.”
The secretary said that the Olympians should respond positively to the PHF offer, despite their differences and ego issues. “It is not about who’s a bigger player and whose voice should be heard and who’s ignored. The main issue here is for hockey to flourish and we are prepared for anything to see that happen,” he said.
On the suggestion that the PHF, through this move, was perhaps trying to cancel out the negative talk and criticism in case the team performs badly at the Olympics, Bajwa said that they were not thinking on those lines.
“No, we don’t work that way. We take criticism constructively,” he insisted.
When asked if he expected the Olympians to turn up for the moot in big numbers, Bajwa said: “They really should. I often see them talking about how we can improve the game further on some TV channel or the other. Now we are giving them a chance to come forward and tell us directly. You never know, they may come up with something that we may have not thought of or missed completely.
“Hockey is once again on the rise in Pakistan. The teams are doing well and we want to take advantage of this positive atmosphere to create an environment of friendship with the game’s greats. As for our part, we promise to be open to their suggestions. We will even forward these to our senior and junior coaches,” said Bajwa.
And will their chief coach Michel van den Heuvel be there as well?
“The meeting is set for Nov 28 and the senior team will be off to New Zealand for the Champions Trophy by that time, so the answer is ‘no’ but the suggestions will be forwarded to him of course,” he concluded.
The Olympians invited for the meeting:
Anwar Ahmed Khan, Khawaja Zakauddin, Lt Col (R) Zafar Ali Khan, Khalid Mahmood, Dr Tariq Aziz, M. Asad Malik, Abdul Rasheed Jr, Akhtar-ul-Islam, Iftikhar Syed, Mohammad Iqbal, Akhtar Rasool, Col (retd) Syed Mudassar Asghar, Abdul Hanif Khan, Qamar Zia, Manzoor-ul-Hassan, Islahuddin Siddiqui, Samiullah Khan, Kaleemullah Khan, Shahnaz Sheikh, Arshad Ali Chowdhary, Manzoor Hussain Jr, Shahid Ali Khan, Saleem Sherwani, Hassan Sardar, Ayaz Mahmood, Ishtiaq Ahmed, Khalid Hameed, Mansoor Ahmed, Khalid Bashir, Shahbaz Ahmed Sr, Tahir Zaman, Rana Mujahid Ali, Mohammad Akhlaque, Farhat Hassan Khan, Khawaja Mohammad Junaid, Anjum Saeed, Waseem Ahmed, Mohamamd Shahbaz Jr, Ahmed Alam, Mohammad Shafqat, Mohammad Sarwar and Kamran Ashraf.
