KARACHI, Aug 22: Former Pakistani Olympians on Friday called for a major effort to revive Asian field hockey after one-time powerhouse Pakistan finished a poor eighth in Beijing and India failed to even qualify.

The three-time champions lost to New Zealand 4-2 on Thursday for their worst performance in Olympic history, while Asian champions South Korea play Britain on Saturday for a possible fifth spot.

Eight-time Olympic champions India failed to qualify for the first time in 100 years of hockey in the Summer Games.

This also became the second Olympics in a row when none of the Asian teams qualified for the semi-finals with world champions Germany facing Spain in the final and Australia playing the Netherlands for a bronze medal on Saturday.

Former Pakistan captain Shahbaz Ahmed lamented the downfall of Asian hockey.

“Asian hockey is dead and buried,” Shahbaz said. “We need to dig deep to revive Asian hockey and the need of the hour is to select players aged 15-18 years and give them coaching on modern lines.”

Pakistan, who won the Olympic title in 1960, 1968 and 1984, won their last Olympic medal at the 1992 Barcelona Games when they took a bronze. They finished sixth in 1996, fourth in 2000 and fifth in 2004.

Shahbaz refused to support the idea of hiring a foreign coach to revive their fortunes.

“India had Australian legend Ric Charlesworth as their adviser but they didn’t even qualify. I think a foreign coach is not an answer because he can take the players to a certain level and that is not enough,” the mercurial playmaker said.

“Asian style is different but we need to adopt some modern technique and must have a young coach like Tahir Zaman, Qamar Ibrahim, Khawaja Junaid or Kamran Ashraf who know the basics of Astro-turf,” said Shahbaz, a member of Pakistan’s world title winning team in 1994.

Shahbaz said he must admit Europeans have improved vastly.

“The worst part is that we don’t accept our downfall and I remember that officials were saying that we will finish on the victory stand which was an illusion. We must admit we are at the lowest ebb of our hockey.” Fellow former Olympian Sohail Abbas said Asian nations must join hands to counter the European “”onslaught”.

“Why don’t the Asian nations unite and counter the European onslaught,” said Sohail, who holds the world record of scoring the most goals with 278 as a penalty corner expert.

Sohail, who plays for Rotterdam in the Dutch League, said the Europeans were beatable.

“Asian teams can beat Europeans because we have the skills but now after the Beijing Olympics we need to improve in all forms of the game,” he added.

With their eighth finish, Pakistan for a second year in a row failed to qualify for the elite six-nation Champions Trophy.—AFP