Former skipper and Olympian Shahbaz Ahmad Senior has offered his services to help national hockey team in getting out of its current crisis and bringing it back to victory spree. "I am ready to provide tips to boys but for that I will not accept any designation," he said talking to APP.
He said Pakistan had a good opportunity to get a respectable place in the recently concluded Azlan Shah Hockey Cup in Malaysia, after their disastrous performance in the World Cup. "But the way the team played in Azlan Shah Cup shows that no proper planning was done," he said.
He said setting up hockey academies merely and including and excluding of players from the national outfit would serve no purpose unless we work with a vision to excel in the game. Pakistan finished last in the 12-nation World Cup Hockey Tournament that held in India in February-March, while they ended at No 5 in the Sultan Azlan Shah Hockey Cup.
Shahbaz, who played a major rule in Pakistan's victories in 1994 World Cup (Sydney) and Champions Trophy 1994 (Lahore) said that the performance of national hockey team would not improve unless some drastic measures are taken. "I will suggest that people like Salahuddin, Sameeullah and Ayaz Mehmood should be somewhere in Pakistan Hockey Federation to save the national game," he said. To a question, he said that there was no need to hire the services of a foreign coach as the country had plenty of former players, including Olympian Tahir Zaman and Qamar Abrahim who could train the boys on modern lines.
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