Former Olympian Islah suggests PHF to pool the best team for the 2012 London Olympics: Hockey News
On Friday, June 3, one of the best hockey captains of Pakistan, Former Olympian, Islahuddin Siddiqui, gave a few suggestions for the Pakistan hockey team and the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF), while talking to press.
The advices provided by him were directed towards improving and channelling the hockey talent within the country, while considering both the youth as well as the veteran expertise for teaming up a squad for the 2012 London Olympics.
Islah was done with his pessimistic approach, when the team excellently performed in the 2010 Asian Games and forth. He was not in a mood of passing remarks about the team’s performance at the 20th Sultan Azlan Shah Cup, held in Ipoh, Malaysia,
considering the fact that they did not win it.
Even though they played the finals, but the important thing was that they must have won because the other teams had deployed their young sides into their national team that showed well, whereas Pakistan was playing at full potential.
He pointed the fact that Pakistan team did not comprise of young players for the Azlan Cup so now is the time to consider the option of making use of the young talent for the upcoming Europe tour and test for the teams to feature in the Champions Trophy
and the Olympics.
Islah highlighted the fact that in terms of strength, Pakistan was third in number at the Azlan Cup, after Australia and Great Britain because they were trounced by both these nations whereas the rest of the four teams were not much a threat to them.
Considering the European region, the hockey teams in power are Germany, Holland, Spain and Belgium, followed by the lowest among them, Great Britain.
Another aspect about losing in the Azlan Cup finals is said to be the mistakes and misses that took place during the seventy-minute period, whereas not in the sudden death round.
Therefore, if those mistakes would have been avoided at first, the sudden death would have never occurred.
Islah accused the current management for not sorting out the problem of misses that the team repetitively has and also blamed the coaches for refusing to admit that the team carries the problem and requires serious attention towards it.
According to him, the drawbacks can be easily overcome by conducting larger camps more often and conducting joint trainings rather than working over them in high time, in competitions.
Regarding the team’s future appearances, Islah suggested, he asked the practice of switching just a couple of players each time in the international appearances must be put to an end and the team must be critically thought over before finalising.
Regarding the Champions Trophy ahead, he believes it would be a bit easier, considering that the eight teams have been divided into two pools. If Pakistan wins two pool matches, it will reach the semi-finals and face-off the two teams from the opposite pool,
in order to reach finals and do their best.
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