LAHORE, Nov 28: Some 35 former Olympians, mostly the supporters of the current hierarchy of the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF), attended a consultation meeting here to discuss ways and means to improve the national hockey.

Though the PHF had invited some 44 former Olympians, stalwarts like Shahnaz Sheikh, Islahuddin, Samiullah and few others refused to attend the meeting at the pretext it was not appropriate time to hold such meetings, since the national team has already left for New Zealand to participate in the Champions Trophy, starting from Dec 3.

Khawaja Zakauddin and Col Mudassar, two prominent critics of PHF policies, however, attended the meeting.

“Though the time is not suitable to hold such discussions at this stage, I attended it as the PHF had invited us for only suggestions,” Col Mudassar told Dawn.

He added that he advised the PHF to aim for only the gold medal at the Champions Trophy.

“Setting third or fourth place as targets will not motivate the players. Winning the gold medal should only be their target,” he said. He said the foreign coach of the national team should be bound to give detailed report of national team’s performance before the PHF executive board.

He said some people in the meeting also suggested that only president, secretary, manager and coach should be allowed to give press statements.

Later, the PHF issued a press statement in which PHF secretary Asif Bajwa said the meeting was attended by a large number of Olympians and they gave useful suggestions.

He said those who refused to attend it would be asked to attend another such meeting, which might be held after three months.

“Lots of fruitful suggestions were discussed in a very cordial atmosphere for about three hours.

“The PHF had invited 44 ex-Olympians out of which 35 attended the meeting. Some of the invitees who could not attend the meeting for their personal reasons shall be contacted again and requested to attend the next meeting as and when decided by the PHF management.

“During the meeting, it was agreed that such types of meetings shall be held frequently on quarterly basis,” Bajwa said in the statement.

The press release further said that PHF president Qasim Zia thanked the participants and said the suggestion to hold meetings on quarterly basis will be put before the next Executive Board for consideration.

Other prominent Olympians who attended the meeting were Akhtar Rasool and Hasan Sardar.