LAHORE, March 29: The Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) Friday made sweeping changes to the makeup of the national team management following its fifth place finish in the 10th World Cup in Kuala Lumpur earlier this month.
The manager of the team Brig Khalid Khokhar and coaches Hanif Khan and Khawaja Junaid were all shown the door. They were replaced with former Olympians Col (retd) Zafar Ali Zafri (manager) and Tahir Zaman (coach).
The PHF will name the second coach later.
The selection committee was also reconstituted though Federal sports minister Col S.K. Tressler was retained as chairman of selectors and Brig Khokhar as member. Rashid Junior and Islahuddin were installed as selectors in place of Shahnaz Sheikh and Samiullah Khan.
Samiullah was also removed as the director of domestic hockey.
The PHF president, Gen Mohammad Aziz Khan, told a press conference that the new management had been brought in to give it a chance to watch the players in action during the ongoing final round of the national championship.
The domestic hockey will be divided into two zones. Mohammad Shafiq will be heading south zone and Akhlaq Usmani north zone.
Gen Aziz said performance of the new management and selection committee would be reviewed after some major international competitions to be organized later this year.
He said the main assignment of the management would be to motivate the players, to overcome psychological barriers and to take the team to higher positions.
Pakistan are to take part in three major events, which are Commonwealth Games, Champions Trophy, and Asian Games.
The president said since he took over as the PHF chief, the federation, had concentrated on some weak areas and now there was a pool of about 150 players instead of 55.
He said the top priority was to generate funds to promote the game at all levels.
The second priority was to introduce scientific coaching for the players for which a good number of coaches imparted training at different levels. Pakistan now has around two dozen national coaches.
The international experts had also been grading the Pakistani coaches and a complete data was available.
Efforts are being made to improve standard of Pakistani umpires. Results are now being achieved as some of them are getting recognition from the International Hockey Federation (FIH).
Infrastructure is being improved in the country. Three or four venues had artificial surfaces where international matches could be organised.
President General Pervez Musharraf is likely to announce some more artificial surface for other venues.
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Gen Aziz said he was satisfied with the efforts of the outgoing management which helped in raising the quality of the team besides infusing necessary motivation.
“But despite all, I feel that the team has failed to break the barrier and in my opinion the changes will help in this direction,” he said.
The PHF chief said the new management is a blend of experience and youth and expressed the hope it will be able to deliver the goods in right direction.
Zafri, a former Olympian has previously served PHF as its secretary and selector. He was also associated with the national team as manager, while Tahir Zaman was the member of 1994 World Cup winning team.
To a question Gen Aziz said if Shahbaz Ahmad impressed with his performance during the final round of the national hockey championship, he would be considered for camp training for the build-up to the future tournaments.
He rejected that changes were made under the influence of a lobby backed by Shahbaz.
“I do not believe in any individual or in any lobby and I have taken the decisions in the larger interest of the game.
“I have thoroughly analyzed the performance of the team and working of the team management in the past two years. Whenever anything is required for hockey it is always followed,” he said.
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