Coach Not Confident About Pakistan Hockey Team Performance At Common Wealth Games
The Commonwealth Games will be starting on this Sunday in the Indian capital New Delhi, and the Pakistan hockey team is all set to take the field in their neighbour country.
Although the relations between the two countries have always been turbulent and stressed, the Pakistan Hockey Federation officials have shown confidence in the Games and have declared that despite the militant threats, the athletes will play at the Games.
The coach of the Pakistan Hockey Team, Michel van den Heuvel has confessed that the team will be facing tough competition at the Games and will be playing against some of the most strong hockey squads in the world. His statement led towards his denial to make any predictions about the team winning a gold medal at the Commonwealth Games. He was rather candid with the standings of the Pakistan Hockey Team at the Games and was upfront with the fact that he is not expecting the team to clinch the gold medal in New Delhi. He further added that the fans should not be disappointed with the team since they will try their best to win all the events in the upcoming Asian Games. Asian Games are scheduled to take place in November in China.
The coach told the correspondents that the first team that Pakistan will be playing against at the Delhi Games will be Scotland. He added that the players will definitely give a good start. Amongst the most difficult competitors the coach named the Malaysian, Indian and Australian teams. The Dutch coach has been training the athletes in the Pakistani team after the team failed miserably at the World Cup that took place in Delhi some four months back.
The governing body of the sport in the country is the Pakistan Hockey Federation. The federation and the coach both are working hard to improve the world ranking of the Pakistan Hockey team and want the team to win a big event like the one that is going to start this Sunday, the Commonwealth Games. It has been quite some time now since the nation has been able to triumph its hockey teams success. The last big event which the Pakistan Hockey Team won was the World Cup and the Champions Trophy in 1994 and the Olympics at Los Angeles in 1984.
Michel also said that the boys in the team were in good physical shape after the training that they received at Abbottabad and Holland. As for the improvement of the team’s world ranking the coach advised the Pakistan Hockey Federation to sign up the team for more international tournaments and events.
The chief selector of the Pakistan Hockey Team confirmed the captain of the team Zeeshan Ashraf as being fit to play at the Commonwealth Games. Hanif Khan said that he is confident that the team will revive its reputation after its horrible performance at the World Cup in New Delhi this year.
Zeeshan had to go through a thorough check up and test due to the hamstring injury he received while in the Netherlands for a training session, earlier this month. Hanif Khan who selected the final hockey team that will be representing Pakistan at the Commonwealth Games also added while talking to the correspondents that even though the Games will be a tough place for the boys to prove themselves, he said he was confident that the team will play better than how it did at the World Cup matches.
At the moment the team is longing to get a position in the semi finals. The task seems very difficult in the presence of the teams like Malaysia, Scotland and India. Experts expect an improvement in the performance of the team since the Dutch coach has been working with them for about four months now after the failure at the Delhi World Cup.
The Pakistan hockey team finished as runners up to the Australian team at the Melbourne Commonwealth Games in 2006.
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