LAHORE, March 16: Olympian and former Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) secretary Khalid Mahmood has expressed his disappointment over national team’s performance in the ongoing Azlan Shah Cup in Ioph, Malaysia.

“Massive defeat at the hands of Australia and allowing India to come from 0-1 down to win 3-1 against Pakistan were not acceptable and these kinds of performances don’t augur well for the future of the team,” said Khalid while talking to Dawn on Saturday.

Pakistan played a 2-2 draw against South Korea in the last league match on Saturday and are now vying for the fifth position in the six-team event.

Talking about dismal show of the Green Shirts in the tournament, Khalid said that it should not be an excuse for head coach Akhtar Rasool that four new players had been given chance, since Malaysia had also fielded a new-look side but their performance was far better.

The former Olympian didn’t seem upbeat about Akhtar Rasool raising a formidable side in the lead-up to the World Cup 2014, saying: “The best time to raise a strong team for the World Cup 2014 was soon after the end of the last mega event held in India in 2010.”

He further elaborated that new players inducted recently into the team needed at least two years for their proper grooming.

He said that players like Waseem Ahmed and Shakeel Abbasi won’t be able to play in the upcoming world cup due to their advancing ages.

It is pertinent to mention that Pakistan earned last position in the last world cup, but later on the team won the Asian Games after a period of two decades.

Talking about team management’s lacklustre attitude towards preparing a competitive team, Khalid said that Pakistan could not prepare even a fine goalkeeper as there hardly seemed any perfect man in the cage to perform the task.

The former Olympian also rejected PHF claim that academies set up across the country had started producing desired results as more new players were inducted into the national team.

“There is hardly any proper professional academy working in the country as mostly jobs are given to like-minded people and friends in the academies run by the PHF,” Khalid claimed.