Waseem Ahmed during the Asia Cup semi-final —AP

KARACHI Former Pakistan skipper Waseem Ahmed has said the present set-up of the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) is sincere to uplift the standard of the game in the country and making efforts in the right direction.

'We (senior players) were never approached by PHF's previous set-ups. But the present body approached us as they wanted to achieve some place in the world. We found them sincere, therefore, we decided to join the national team,' Waseem said.

Waseem was among the four senior players who were recalled by the PHF for the Asia Cup. The others were Sohail Abbas, Salman Akbar and Rehan Butt.

Waseem said Pakistan played well in the final and kept Korea under pressure.

'It was our bad luck that we conceded a goal in the dying minutes of the match,' he added.

'It was a good experience overall. We gathered for the national team after such a long time and we enjoyed it. We easily adjusted ourselves with the juniors and we played as a unit,' he said.

'We performed well in the tournament after such a long time due to team spirit and collective efforts. We made some good combinations, however, luck was not in our favour. We didn't avail the chances we managed to create in the final and unfortunately lost the match,' he said. He praised the junior players.

'All the junior players played well particularly Haseem Khan and Mohammad Irfan,' Waseem said.

Waseem appreciated the PHF for hiring foreign physical trainer, Jos Geijsal, for the team and added that the trainer was instrumental in keeping the team fit during the tournament.