Former Olympian Shahnaz Sheikh lauds decision of PHF for recalling senior players – Hockey News
The Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) has succeeded to earn the support of former Olympians to boost the morale of the Greenshirts.
The Federation in a wise move recalled the senior players into the team for the upcoming Australia-Tour and Champions Trophy. The Greenshirts failed to win the finals of the last two tournaments, the Azlan Shah Hockey Tournament and Asian Champions Trophy.
The selection committee of the Federation announced a list of 25 probable players for the upcoming mega events. The final line-up will be named for the 2012 London Olympics after watching the performance of the players in the Australia-Tour and Champions
Trophy. The former Olympians are quite happy over the decision through which the Federation recalled the senior players including Salman Akbar and Sohail Abbas.
Shahnaz Sheikh, the veteran hockey star of his era, expressed pleasure saying that the Federation accepted their mistake by calling back these players. He was of the view that the Greenshirts lost to India in the final competition of the Asian Champions
Trophy due to the absence of veteran goalie Salman Akbar and Sohail Abbas.
He continued that the former players had asked the Federation to call back the senior names into the team ahead of the title-claiming match. The absence of the senior team members was deeply felt in the final game, as the Greenshirts failed to score off
a single short corner out of a total of eight.
In his view, the World’s best squads were preparing themselves for the major title and a professional game will be played in these tournaments. The responsibility will be on the senior players to win the glory in the Olympics. Sheikh complained that the
Federation did not pay heed to their advice to improve the status of hockey, which they were offering for the last three years.
In the suggestion phase he asked the Federation to organise long-duration practice camps up to eight weeks in order to give them maximum time for overcoming their mistakes. In the very next phase he divided the pattern of training into different sections
including drill training, individual skill, pressure and competition.
The former Olympian said, “One important point which must be kept in mind is since eight teams are participating in the event and are divided into two pools which mean event has become tougher and to secure 6 or 7 points would lead Pakistan to the top 4
hockey playing nations which will help in lifting the spirits of the team for Olympic Games.”
He informed that the meeting of the former Olympians was held in Islamabad which discussed all the suggestions and passed it on to the officials of the Federation for final review.
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