Humiliating defeats in India Many players face the axe

KARACHI: The embarrassing performance by Pakistan hockey team in World Cup in India is likely to result in the expulsion of seven or eight senior players, ‘The News’ learnt on Tuesday.

Sources said those senior players would be dumped who have been part of the team for eight to ten years but failed to improve their performance. Their performances in the Asian Games and World Cup are enough reason for not considering them for future assignments, they added.

The players who could be shown the door include goalkeeper Imran Butt, defender Irfan Senior, PC expert Aleem Bilal, defender Rashid Mehmood, forward Tauseeq, defender Tasawwar Abbas, forward Umar Bhutta, and captain Rizwan Senior.

A former player said it was shocking that Pakistan failed to beat even Malaysia whom they had defeated in four previous competitions. “We did not expect them to beat Germany or Holland, but they couldn’t even beat Malaysia,” said a former player.

Pakistan conceded as many as 10 goals in their last two matches of the World Cup. Former players said it was a deeply disappointing performance from the team. They said the people who had been running the PHF for many years must resign.

They, however, said it would be useless if the federal government appointed new officials, but without giving them appropriate funds. Pakistan are to play some tough events in the coming year, including Pro Hockey League starting from February. It will be a tough event, featuring such teams as Argentina, Australia, Germany, Holland, and Belgium. Pakistan’s domestic hockey has been strengthened. The PHF is going to organise the first hockey league in Pakistan in February, in which each team would have four or five foreign players. This would be an ideal time to induct junior players to prepare them for coming tough international events, a former player said.

PHF has prepared a junior team which played in Australia’s under-17 domestic championship a year ago and won it. The juniors also played against World Hockey XI last year. The same team also visited Canada and played against their senior team. Thus, the second string players are in a position to replace the seniors.