LAHORE: In the backdrop of national hockey team’s humiliating ouster from the ongoing World Cup, head coach Tauqir Dar on Friday said he is not interested to continue with the job and has conveyed it to the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF).

Talking to media, Tauqir said as his assignment was only for the World Cup being staged in the Indian city of Bhubaneswar, he had conveyed to the PHF that he was no more available for the said job.

Pakistan, a former four-time World Cup winners who last clinched the global title back in 1994, miserably failed to break the jinx of the poor performances in Bhubaneswar as they crashed out in the second round and could not even win a single match out of four they played at the 16-nation spectacle.

Tauqir said he has asked team manager Hasan Sardar to advise the PHF to sack senior players and induct young blood into national team.

“If we have to face big 5-0 defeats at the hands of Belgium and the Netherlands with these seniors it is better to say goodbye to them and bring in new blood to prepare them in the next couple of years for cut-throat international contests,” Tauqir said.

Tauqir, a member of the Pakistan team which last won Olympic gold medal at the 1984 Los Angles Games, said he took charge as team’s head coach just 20 days before the World Cup as Hasan asked him to do so.

“I am quite satisfied with my work at grassroots level, running Dar Hockey Academy [in Lahore], and am not interested in any PHF post,” said Tauqir.

Published in Dawn, December 15th, 2018