Hockey coach calls for drastic measures to improve ranking

ISLAMABAD: The newly-appointed Pakistan hockey team’s coach, who is heading to China to join national team a day ahead of start of the Asian Champions Trophy, Thursday called for drastic and revolutionary measures to stage recovery, saying that his first target will be to improve team’s ranking by six to seven position within next two to three years’ time.

In an exclusive interview with ‘The News’ before his departure for Hulunbuir City of Inner Mongolia (China), Tahir Zaman said that his position with the team would be more like an observer.

“The team has already reached Inner Mongolia and has been training there for over a week now. My first job will be to know the team well and interact with each player. Since my appointment has come late, I did not get the opportunity to spend some time with the players. I am scheduled to reach China just hours ahead of the start of the event. So it would not be easier for me to make any contribution straight away.”

Pakistan team ranked as No 16 in the world has been struggling to match the best teams around. “You may call it lack of exposure or adaptability as Pakistan have struggled to match the best in the world for the past ten years or so. What we need is to prepare an outfit capable of matching the best competing against those teams who are ranked within the top eight teams of the world. Once we get there, I am sure we will start improving with each passing day,” said Tahir who is the only high performance Level VI coach in the country and second in Asia.

He added that all the improvement would come with a price and that price is to ensure training at a High Performance Centre round the year. “We need to develop a high performance center where hockey players of all ages get training throughout the year. Developing hockey and that too in all age categories is possible while training in patches. It is something that requires training and coaching at all levels. That is what I am looking at while staying as coach. What I want is to broaden the pool of players. Around 35 top level players should be there from where the national team selection could be made. Pool of players should be as such where you should have the option to see and select an alternate for all positions.”

Tahir, who was head coach of the national team when it won the Asian Champions Trophy in 2013, said the best thing about Pakistan hockey players is that they can adapt to the given conditions within no time.

“When it comes to hockey the talent is in abundance. Pakistan players have the tendency to learn at a rapid pace but for that you need to give them proper exposure to make sure that newly-learned techniques should be put to practice against the best of opposition.”

When questioned on Pakistan’s chances in the Champions Trophy starting from September 8, he said that he had yet to see the potential of the selected team. “Once I join the team and see their potential I would be in a position to say anything final.” Pakistan will play their opening match on Sunday against Malaysia.