It’s a good decision: Tahir

KARACHI: The chief coach of national junior hockey team Olympian Tahir Zaman has said that the team management has focused on some weak points of the junior team such as weak defence on penalty corners and poor marking of the defenders.
Talking to ‘The News’, he said the penalty corner specialists were improving day by day and their ratio of goal scoring on penalty corners was gradually improving. “But our defence on penalty corners is not that good and we will have to work hard on it,” he said.
“We are also working on strengthening goalkeeping, particularly for penalty shootout,” he said.
He said that two practice matches have been proposed for the participants of the training camp and these would be held after Eid-ul Adha holidays.
He applauded the PHF’s decision to arrange longer stay in Malaysia for the players and the management after Sultan Johor Hockey Tournament to prepare for the Asia Cup 2015.
He said it would help improve the performance of the team.
The chief coach also urged that during the training in Malaysia some practice matches should also be organised for the boys. He said he would ask PHF in this regard as it is the lack of match practice that has kept the boys back. “They have not played tough hockey for past several months. Therefore, as many matches as possible should be organized against tough teams,” he said.
Tahir said the team management and the junior players were satisfied with the facilities and diet provided during the training camp.
It may be noted that the senior players of the national team had openly complained that the previous PHF management did not provide satisfactory diet during the training camps.