Planet Field Hockey

By Khalid Hussain
KARACHI: Pakistani hockey officials on Thursday played down their team's defeat against India in the final of the Prime Minister Gold Cup, saying their side was "just unlucky" to lose the much-awaited encounter.

The team's senior coach Hanif Khan gave his vote of confidence to the side stressing that the "overall performance of the boys was quite satisfactory". "It was unfortunate that we lost the match which we should have won," said Hanif.

The former Olympian blamed bad luck and his team's defence for the narrow defeat in the match on penalty shoot-out. Pakistan dominated most of the final but later the team's key players Sohail Abbas, Mohammad Sarwar and Nadeem ND faltered in the penalty shoot-out as India won the match 6-5.

Hanif's fellow coach Shahbaz Ahmed also refrained from criticising his team which played its first competition after last September's Olympic Games in Sydney where they finished fourth. "I personally think we played much better than India in the final," commented Shahbaz for whom Dhaka was the first international outing as a coach. "A few mistakes in the defence and a run of poor luck in the shoot-out cost us the title," added the former skipper.

Hanif and Shahbaz both praised the performance of their team which gave a mixed show in the nine-nation Gold Cup. The team's defence as usual turned out to be its achilles heels but the forward-line played much better, one point that is seen as a silver lining by the coaches.

"We have learnt a lot of things from the tournament. Firstly, we are now convinced the defence needs a lot of improvement. The fullbacks and halfbacks lack in marking, they leave too many gaps and they are not attacking enough. All in all, we need to work a lot on them," felt Hanif.

But in the meantime, Hanif was happy to see that almost all of his forwards scored during the tournament. "The good news for us is that now our forwards are getting us some goals. That means we will not have to just rely on penalty corners."

Hanif was referring to Pakistan's short corner specialist Sohail Abbas who have been the team's biggest scorer during the last couple of years. But a bumpy field at the Maulana Bhashani Stadium in Dhaka made it sure that Sohail doesn't get many goals.

Pakistan badly missed Sohail's contribution especially in the final in which the Karachi player went goalless. But at the same time, Sohail's barren run helped in brining out the best from forwards like Nadeem ND, Mohammad Sarwar, Haider Hussain, Kashif Jawwad, Mohammad Anis and rookie M Mudassar, who all scored during the tournament.

Both Hanif and Shahbaz agreed that a defeat against arch-rivals India is never easy to digest but called for the hockey fans to stay patient as their team will come out with a better show in its next international assignment.

"The boys gave a good show in Dhaka but their best is yet to come. With some more training and drills, I am sure they will not disappoint in future tournaments," felt Shahbaz. The Pakistanis went to Dhaka without proper homework as their preparations were disturbed by uncertainty over their tour of Bangladesh because of diplomatic problems.

But things will be better for them when the green shirts will go to Europe to play a four-nation tournament in Hamburg, Germany which will be preceded by a test series against Spain in June.

The quadrangular event involves world and Olympic champions Holland, Australia and Germany -- a tougher event than the PM Gold Cup where India were the only real opponents for the Pakistanis.

Hanif wants his team's training camp for Europe to start in April so that his boys are able to get best possible training. Shahbaz also agrees with it but the final decision will only be taken after the team management that also includes Khawaja Junaid (coach) and Brig. Khalid Khokhar meets with Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) secretary Brig. Musarratullah Khan later this month to decide about the dates and venue of the training camp.

The News International

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