KARACHI, July 21: The joy of staging a comeback earlier this year by Mohammad Sarwar proved to be short-lived when the veteran forward was not considered for the 16-member Athens Olympic hockey squad on Wednesday.

Sarwar, who was discarded by the selection committee before the Amstelveen Champions Trophy in August last year, was recalled by coach Roelant Oltmans in March before Madrid's Olympic qualifiers after a nine-month lay-off.

The squad is scheduled to fly to Spain to play a few games there and have some recreation before travelling to the Greek city of Athens where Games begin on Aug 13. Apart from Sarwar, Imran Khan, who was especially called from the junior side by coach for the senior camp, has also been dropped from the squad to make it a 16-man outfit.

Imran will, however, play in Spain and returns home while the squad proceeds to Greece. "Sarwar really did improve his physical fitness a lot but was not impressive during the European tour.

Imran is too raw and not ready for an event like Olympics. He is a diamond which needs to be polished," Oltmans said. The Dutchman did not mince words, saying he would take the responsibility of the results at the Olympics, but reiterated that time was indeed short to prepare for the mega event.

However, he categorically said short time would not be an excuse for him if the team faltered at any stage during the Olympics. "I will still say it makes a big difference if a team prepares for years for the Olympics which we are not doing.

I have just pinpointed the factor which is against us. "But in case of failure, I will take full responsibility as the coach. There is no room for excuses. I should not have taken the charge if I was not ready to take the responsibility," Oltmans said. But the Dutchman, who coached the 1996 Dutch squad that won the gold in Atlanta, added that it took four years for him to prepare a Olympic gold medal-winning squad.

"It took four years for the Dutch to win the Olympic, while Spain is doing the same thing. They hired Maurits Hendricks, who used to be my assistant, four years ago and now they are reaping the results by giving excellent performances," he opined.

But in Pakistan's case, he said, he did not give the officials a guarantee for the Olympic gold before joining the team, but the will and determination to get the best possible performance from his side was his endeavour.

"Everybody wants to win the gold. But at the same time one should be realistic. Pakistan are in the 'Group of Death' having teams like world champions Germany, Spain, Great Britain, South Korea and Egypt, therefore, no coach can guarantee a gold at the biggest event on earth."

Interestingly, the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) chief Gen Aziz Khan last Tuesday had vehemently stated nine months were enough for the team to deliver at Olympics. The coach said that the team's inconsistency could damage things at the Olympics and added Pakistan could reach the semifinals if they survived top class pool matches.

"Inconsistency is a negative factor and lack of leadership and sometimes communication gap during the game could be said one of the reasons for that. While teams like Germany and Netherlands have players who can motivate the team during play, Pakistan do not have a player who could be a driving force," he remarked.

Oltmans felt that the squad for the Games was the best possible combination and was a blend of youth and experience. "We have experienced players like Kashif (Jawwad) and Shabbir (Hussain), while we also have youngsters in Tariq (Aziz) and Salman (Akbar). I also consider Dilawar (Hussain) and Zeeshan (Ashraf) relatively inexperienced and younger player."

Oltmans, although said the team was announced after participation of the selection committee members in the meeting, he admitted a lot of discussions between him and the selectors were held before finalizing the squad.

The coach, however, did not divulge who would be the number one goalkeeper, saying it would make the goalies complacent. "We announced the number one goalkeeper during the recent European tour and paid for it.

It made the number one goalie complacent. Now we will tell the goalkeepers just before the match to make them fight for the number one place," he said without naming who was the number one keeper during European tour.

Younger and inexperienced Salman Akbar played most of the matches in Europe, while ageing Ahmad Alam, who has lost his number one goalkeeper status after Oltmans's arrival, played second fiddle. According to a PHF press release, Sarwar and Imran will accompany the team only for Spain.

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