ISLAMABAD: Pakistan head-coach Shahnaz Sheikh has vowed to play attacking hockey — with a ‘9/11’ strategy — to help the Green-shirts qualify for next year’s Olympics.

The strategy, which was misinterpreted and linked to the 9/11 tragedy during the Champions Trophy last year, is what Shahnaz believes will help Pakistan win games at the Hockey World League (HWL) semi-finals, which act as qualifiers for the 2016 Rio Games.

A month-long training camp for the Pakistan team began on Monday featuring 30 probables here at the Naseer Bunda Hockey Stadium ahead of the HWL semi-finals which will be held in Antwerp, Belgium from June 20-July 5.

The semi-finals in Antwerp are one of two which will have six berths for the Olympics on offer.

“The 9/11 strategy sees the team attack with nine players while as far as defending is concerned, all 11 take part in it,” Shahnaz told Dawn during the team’s training camp.

Shahnaz added that it was the same strategy which helped Pakistan beat India in the semi-finals of the Champions Trophy in December last year and hoped it would come good again.

Pakistan lost to Germany in the final of that tournament but Shahnaz’s 9/11 strategy was linked to the 9/11 tragedy by Indian media.

“It’s all about sports so I don’t want people to misinterpret my words ... I profusely condemn all kind of terrorism anywhere in the world,” he said.

“We’re working hard to rectify or past blunders [including failure to qualify for last year’s World Cup] and we’ll do our best to qualify for the Olympics.”

At the HWL semi-finals, Pakistan have been drawn in Pool ‘A’ alongside Australia, India, France and Austria. India have already qualified for the Olympics courtesy their gold medal at the Asian Games last year.

Pakistan need to finish amongst the top three in their HWL semi-final to earn a berth at the Olympics. The top three teams from the other semi-final in Buenos Aires will make up for the six places available from the HWL.

The hockey tournament at the Olympics will see 12 teams take part, including the hosts.

Shahnaz said after the training camp, week-long trials will be held to select the team which will then play preparatory games ahead of the HWL semi-finals.

“Before participating in the HWL semi-finals, we will participate in a four-nation championship in Australia before visiting South Korea for a bilateral series.

“A month before the Olympic qualifying round we will play six matches with different European countries as I believe that participation in those matches will help us qualify for the Olympics.

“I hope we will be amongst the top three teams in the HWL and there are good signs. Recently, three domestic tournaments were held in which the players showed a good performance and we’ll select the best players for this crucial assignment.”

Published in Dawn, March 20th, 2015

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