Bangladesh: Qamar confident
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| Bangladesh |
June 22, 2004
The Daily Star, Bangladesh
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Pakistani coach Qamar Ibrahim said that people would be able to feel the difference within six months if he was given the job to serve Bangladesh hockey.
The 36-year old former Pakistan international, who played in Dhaka for popular club Abahani in 1993, exuded his confidence to reporters yesterday afternoon after he came here to have talks with the Bangla-desh Hockey Federation (BHF) officials.
Qamar arrived in the capital last morning to negotiate a deal to become a coach of the BHF, which is looking forward to inject fresh blood into a game already in the doldrums.
Although both parties expressed their optimism about reaching an agreement, everything will be decided today following a meeting between State Minister for Youth and Sports Fazlur Rahman and BHF president and Chief of the Air Staff Air Vice Marshal Fakhrul Azam.
"We are hopeful of securing his services and the only thing we will discuss today is about his status in Bangladesh. He may want to sign as a part-timer, but we are interested to see him as a full-time coach," said BHF general secretary Shamsul Bari, who already had a preliminary discussion with the Pakistani at the federation office.
Qamar informed the reporters that he had refused a lucrative offer from an Australian club for domestic commitment.
"Australia is far away from Pakistan and I have some domestic commitments as well. I can only maintain this if I am working in Bangladesh," said the handsome stick wielder, who is a businessman and an employee of PIA.
The former Pakistani right-out believed that he had adequate experience to serve Bangladesh with experiences of one World Cup, two Olympic Games and five Cham-pions' Trophy in an illustrious international career spanning 1986-93.
"I want to work with the young sides and shape up a development structure. I believe if you have a good development structure you will succeed," said Qamar, who denied to make any comment on the current state of Bangladesh national team.
"I watched the Bangladeshi youths play in Karachi last April as an advisor. I saw a lot of potential and they looked pretty impressive to adopt to anything new which is the key to develop any player. But lack of fitness is one area what we should work hard on," added the confident Qamar, who has recently passed the Level One coaching course of FIH (International Hockey Federation).
Bangladesh finished sixth in the Under-21 Youth Hockey Champion-ship in Karachi where Qamar had two special training sessions with the Bangladeshi boys.
The Pakistani, who is now coaching the National Hockey Club of Karachi, said he would be working with the Bangladesh team with a target of attaining good results in the 2006 Asian Games to be held in Qatar.
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