08-Aug-2012
KARACHI: Pakistan’s defeat at the hands of the Australians is their worst ever performance in the Olympics history, said former Olympian Qamar Ibrahim on Tuesday.
The previous worst performance was 6-3 defeat in Sydney Olympics in 2000.
Qamar said the defeat exposed the ill-preparedness of the boys for the event, he said. “All the experts had been criticising the federation so that it could avoid the humiliation of this day but it always turned a deaf ear,” the former Olympian and coach told PPI.
“This is unacceptable from a country which calls hockey its national sport. I request the government to sack the ineffective present PHF setup or withdraw the name of hockey as its national sport because it has been robbed of importance and has not been properly cared for by these incompetent officials.”
Qamar said that many loopholes were seen in the match against Australia, which could have been avoided. “If the team had properly prepared for the tournament, we wouldn’t have seen this humiliation.”
He pointed out that the federation and the team management had made a blunder by having only one goal-keeper in such a huge event. “The concept of one goal-keeper was brought by the Europeans to counter the hot and humid weather of countries like Malaysia so that they could have one more player in the tournament instead of two goal-keepers,” he said.
“But this idea could not be pragmatic in tournaments like Olympics and we do not have big problems with hot and humid weather so this decision was stupid,” Qamar explained.
He added that the federation had failed to prepare the younger lot, who could have replaced the senior players. “These senior players couldn’t have performed well in such a demanding tournament. The federation should have groomed new players,” he said.
Former Olympian Shahnaz Sheikh concurred with Qamar and said that Pakistan has paid a big price for not having experienced goal-keeper Salman Akbar in the squad. “Having only one goal-keeper in the squad was a folly,” Shahnaz said.
He said that Pakistan completely surrendered to the Australians in the do-or-die match. “Pakistan played the way Australians wanted them to play. Pakistan gave them open space to organise their moves and they scored at will,” he said. Shahnaz also demanded that PHF officials should step down and let other people come forward and do something better for the sport. |
