Pakistan’s captain Mohammad Imran rued his players’ inability to play as a team in Auckland that resulted in the team ending seventh in the eight-team Champions Trophy.
Pakistan only managed to beat Korea in the event but Imran vowed an improved display in next year’s London Olympics. The Greenshirts lost four matches – against Great Britian, Spain and Germany besides being thrashed by eventual winners of the tournament Australia – that sealed their fate in the event.
Imran admitted the team failed to perform as a unit in the tournament that followed Pakistan’s success in a tri-nation event where they beat world champions Australia in the final.
“We played very well but in patches,” the captain told reporters at Karachi Airport. “We failed to play as a team and that cost us dearly. The European teams are very tough but had we managed to stretch those patches of good performances into the entire game, we would have achieved better results.” The captain, however, remained confident of a better performance at the Olympics.
“We played the Champions Trophy after a gap of four years, which also affected our performance. I’m confident that by learning from our mistakes, we can show a good performance in the Olympics, which is our main target.”
Imran also dismissed rumours of infighting among the senior players of the team.
“There are no captaincy issues and I get support from every member of the team.”
PHF president satisfied
Meanwhile, the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) President Qasim Zia, who joined the team in Auckland, expressed satisfaction on the team’s performance.
“We went as the ninth-ranked team [in the world] and finished seventh, which is satisfying,” said Zia. “Pakistan were playing against very tough teams and it was a learning process for all the players. The positive thing is that we maintained the Asian supremacy by beating Koreans.
“We created many opportunities but failed to execute them.”
Opportunity missed to climb up the rankings
Meanwhile, team manager Khwaja Junaid said the side failed to avail the opportunity of improving its world rankings further after it climbed one spot to be placed eighth.
“We could’ve improved our world rankings further,” said Junaid.
“We had a good chance of securing at least fifth and the loss against Great Britain was disappointing.”
However, Junaid said the overall performance was satisfactory.
“We went as a lowly-ranked team and there shouldn’t be expectations of winning the title.”
He said the team management has noticed several loopholes and a lot of work would be done on overcoming the flaws before the all-important Olympics.
“We had not played a tournament where we faced such tough oppositions for a very long time. We have learnt a lot from this tough outing and will work very hard to overcome all our weaknesses now.”
Published in The Express Tribune, December 14th, 2011.
COMMENTS
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ