Preparing team for Pro League a tough task, says Saeed

ISLAMABAD: Saeed Khan, the newly appointed national hockey team head coach and manager, has admitted that preparing the team for Pro League starting later this month is a tough task.

Pakistan have to travel to Argentina for the first leg of Pro League home and away matches to be played in Cordoba before crossing over to Australia for the second leg. The matches against Argentina are to be played on February 2 and February 3.

“It is really tough. All the leading nine teams will stay on their toes throughout the year. Now the challenge is even greater and bigger,” Saeed told ‘The News’ from Paris on Friday.

The newly appointed manager said he would be back by Saturday (today). “I have been given the task to coach the team under trying circumstances. The team is shapeless with no one in a position to predict at this point of time what the ultimate combination would be. So we will have to start all afresh,” he said.

Lt Gen (rtd) Ashfaq Nadeem Ahmad is likely to become the federation’s president within the next ten days. Saeed played majority of his hockey under Hanif Khan’s shadow at inside left position. He was a reserve member of Pakistan’s World Cup-winning teams of 1978 and 1982.

He worked as assistant coach to Rashid Junior during the Pakistan national team’s successful World Cup and the Champions Trophy campaign in 1994.His last assignment was as the head coach of the Pakistan women team at the Asian Games Qualifiers in Thailand in January last year.

Scotland had offered its national hockey stadium as a venue for all Pakistan’s home games. That agreement fell through and it was back to the drawing board.The international hockey community stepped in, with other national associations offering venues to fit in with the match schedules. Hence, Pakistan will be playing home matches across Europe, Australia and South America, with the fixture list cutting excessive travel as far as possible.

Pakistan’s home matches will be played in Argentina, Belgium, Germany, Netherlands and the United Kingdom.Pakistan will play back-to-back home and away fixtures in Argentina, and after playing an away match against Belgium in Brussels, they will adopt the Brussels stadium as their home venue to face Australia.