LAHORE,Oct 22: Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) is cautious about predicting team’s chances in forthcoming Champions Trophy in Holland and expects that reaching the victory will be quite satisfactory performance.

“With top six teams of the world in the fray its is really hard to predict an outright winner and our expectations are pinned on reaching the victory podium,” said Secretary, PHF, Brig Musarrat Ullah Khan in an interview with APP Monday.

He said the Pakistani team has the potential to reach the victory stand if it played upto its potential.

Champions Trophy has never been easy for any team and every match in this single league tournament is of do- or-die importance.

PHF official said we have adopted long and short duration measures to stop the further slide of the national team and to enhance its performance.

“Inclusion of Shahbaz is aimed at achieving this target and PHF is confident that the former skipper will play an important role in the performance of the team,” he said.

He defended the inclusion of Shahbaz but said the player was not one hundred percent fit.

‘If a player of Shahbaz’s calibre and age is even seventy percent fit he can create scoring chances for the forwards to utilize them,” he said.

He made it clear that PHF was not relying on Shahbaz alone and said it was hoping to benefit from his vast experience and to add extra advantage and confidence in the team members with his presence,” he said.

He rejected a questioner that the overall performance of the team was on the decline and its graph was going down with each passing day.

Brig Khan insisted that the team was improving saying that in the past four tournaments, except Azlan Shah, its performance was satisfactory on the basis of results achieved.

Secretary PHF said if the team failed to achieve the goals set for it in the tournament, PHF would not hesitate to accept the merits and demerits.

He said that Ahmad Alam tried to impose his own terms and conditions on the national federation after quitting and not even considered to reverse his decision to appear in the trials.

“If a player thinks that he is above all norms and disciplines, no matter how big he is in the game, he cannot be considered,” he added.

Replying to a question, PHF secretary said he cannot set a time frame for turning the team into a winning combination as the everything depends on the performance of available players.

He said PHF had embarked upon a journey to revive the game by adopting various measures which include formation of junior teams, training of players at specialised position and scrutiny of clubs.

“These are not the short term measures and they will bring required results in few years to put the game on right track,” he said.

He said the team leaves well ahead of the tournament to play practice matches before the tournament to acclimatize with the cooler conditions.

With the shifting of Champions Trophy the PHF will suffer a loss of Rs 30 million and will spend Rs 6.2 million for participation in the Champions Trophy.—APP