Pakistan, South Korea call off fourth match

KARACHI: The hockey series between Pakistan and South Korea ended after three matches as the fourth match was cancelled through mutual understanding of coaches of both teams.
Due to some controversies, it was difficult to continue the series, sources said on Friday.
The decision to this effect was taken after the third match. The match was drawn 2-2 and ended in bitterness as it was closed nine minutes before the scheduled time due to tense situation in the match created by bad umpiring, the sources said.
According to the reports received here, Pakistan were losing in the first two quarters of the third match by 2-0, but later Pakistan played well as Muhammad Irfan scored a goal on a penalty corner and Shafqat netted an artistic goal.
Pakistan increased its attack on Korea. Pakistan forward Waqas Sharif appealed for a penalty corner, but the umpire showed yellow card to him and sent him off the field.
Pakistan captain Muhammad Imran told the umpire that it was the right of the player to appeal, so why he had been sent out. At this the umpire showed red card to Imran and sent him out too.
At that time nine minutes were left before the closing time.
As a result of this acrimony, both teams’ management decided that the fourth match should be cancelled as four players of Pakistan and two of Korea were injured and both teams did not want to take risk of further injuries. The Koreans have to go to Argentina in a couple of days and Pakistan are to play some other matches for preparation of qualifying rounds of Olympics 2016.
Chief coach Shahnaz Sheikh, when contacted, said that Pakistan had no option but to cancel the fourth match. “Our four players were injured. Korea did not give due importance to this series. They wanted to win the matches at all costs to boost their players’ morale for other competitions,” he said.
“We played three matches totally under one-sided umpiring. Both umpires belonged to the host country and jury was absent too.
Before starting the third match, they changed the umpires on my protest but both of them were club level umpires.
“In two matches there was no jury. When we protested they appointed a jury, but I suspected that they did not know about hockey deeply enough.
“When Waqas Sharif appealed for the penalty corner as the ball had hit the leg of a Korean player, the umpire showed yellow card to him, and sent him out. When captain Imran tried to talk to the umpire, the umpire sent him out too,” he said. The Pakistan coach said the Koreans were playing with nine or eight players and were not in a position to score.
“So they denied us four open penalty corners,” he claimed. He said that during the match Waqas Sharif and Shafqat were injured. “Thus, I and Korean coach Shin Kong decided to finish the match nine minutes before by mutual understanding. And the fourth match was called off because the situation was not conducive to play hockey,” he said.
The coach claimed said that except the first match Pakistan played well against World No 8 team on its home turf. “We were improving after each match,” he claimed. He said that Pakistan would continue training on May 23 and would return home on May 25.