Chief selector national hockey team Hasan Sardar has indicated that heads will start rolling after the national team returns back home from their disastrous World Cup campaign in New Delhi.
"It has been a shameful tournament for us. We have to review the performance of each and every player of the team. The team has let down everybody. Even the senior players failed to shoulder the responsibility of the team," he said.
Four-time champions Pakistan suffered a 3-4 shocking loss to minnows South Africa in a Pool B match. It was one of the worst defeats in the history of Pakistani hockey and that too against a team that was blanked 0-12 by the Australians at the Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium. "This is one of worst loss of the national team," he added. Coach Shahid Ali Khan said "We played a good first half and even took a 1-0 lead. But in the second half we completely lost it. This is one of the worst defeats in the history of Pakistan hockey. Even I have never faced such defeat during my playing days. My team is not playing well and everything is bad with us. We were never the tournament favourites. We came here to improve our rankings, but never expected such a result."
Shahid also blasted the senior players for the World Cup debacle. "Before the World Cup we had recalled 4-5 senior players. They did well in other tournaments, but surprisingly they have failed in the World Cup. They have let us down extremely. We are going to review their performance once we go back home," said the former goalkeeper, who was a part of Pakistan's gold winning squad at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. Asked whether he was indicating at the lacklustre performance of veteran drag-flicker Sohail Abbas, Shahid said: "Why Sohail? All senior players in the team played badly. It is a collective failure of the team."
The coach, however, was extremely confident about his own future. "I have been given charge till the Asian Games and our target is to do well in China," he said.
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