KARACHI, July 16 Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) Secretary Asif Bajwa expressed confidence on Thursday that next year's World Cup in India will not take place without Pakistan's presence in the tournament.

Talking to Dawn exclusively at the Hockey Club of Pakistan (HCP) on Thursday, a day ahead of the vital Executive Board meeting, the former Olympian buoyed by the national team's fine performance in the Asia Cup and the recently-concluded three-Test series against England, said “It remains to be seen where we get to play the qualifiers as only two continental rounds have been played and the results of the remaining three are yet to come. But trust me, we will qualify for the mega event no matter which pool we are put in. This World Cup is not happening without Pakistan's participation.”

Pakistan ended up second after going down 0-1 to Korea in the Asia Cup final in May and recently won the three-Test series against England 2-0.

When asked about Pakistan's preparation plans upto the qualifiers which are planned for sometime in November, Bajwa who is also the senior team manager, said “Well, we are starting a camp in preparation for the qualifiers in August.”

About the previous talk of possibly playing a brief series with either Germany or Holland, Bajwa said that those were off the agenda as those countries planned their playing calendar two years ahead. “Still, we are trying to get ourselves in wherever we'll get a chance to play before November,” he said.

About the four-nation tournament in Russia (Pakistan, India, South Africa and Russia), Bajwa said that that was off too as it had no relevance or importance to it after India too pulled out of it.

When reminded about the former players' criticism that the team's current successes could be an eyewash and winning the England series was no big achievement, Bajwa said “Those who say that forget that England were fifth in the world rankings when we were eighth. And we were also beaten by them 4-2 at the Beijing Olympics. They beat us in the 2006 Test series, too. In fact, for the past four years, England have beaten us whenever we have met,” Bajwa pointed out.

“All this talk of our recent wins being flukes and our taking the England Test series not being that big an accomplishment is really just a clash of egos. That's really what's going on here. Our respectable seniors cannot believe that their juniors would take over the reins of national hockey and drive it to success,” he said.

Bajwa, however, was rather non-chalant when asked about allegations of a 'one-man show' in the PHF. “I don't react to such petty things,” he said. “There are so many people making all kinds of allegations about me. If I get going, I can really ruin them with the information the federation has on them but the PHF right now is working on such a high level, I don't want to distract myself from our goal and use my energies in clearing up their allegations.

“I may be the brains behind most of our projects but I'm answerable to only three foras — the PHF Congress, the Executive Board and my President Qasim Zia. I fulfill what I have been advised to do by them. The rest doesn't matter. The media too should first see who's saying all this and what is his own credibility before creating such hype.”

About his past year's work for the federation, that the Executive Board will also be reviewing besides other things, Bajwa said “I always stand by my word. I have kept to each and every promise I made to the nation after taking over as the federation's secretary one year ago. The hockey academies are doing great work. In fact, they are a silent revolution happening in hockey here. The results will be before you in a few years' time.

“The PHF has also taken back the possession of the HCP ground from the cantonment board. The encroachments are all gone and we have built a new wall around that land. There is a new parking lot being built where there was a marriage lawn earlier. Proposals for constructing new stands have already been sent to the Pakistan Sports Board. We have as good as fulfilled FIH's requirements to give this ground its international status back,” concluded the PHF secretary.