Daily Times

KARACHI: Former Pakistan hockey players Sami­ullah Khan and Mudassar Asghar on Friday slammed the national side’s performance after they lost 1-0 to Japan in the Asian Games semi-final against Japan on Thursday. The Olympians also urged the government to start an accountability process against those who are responsible. The loss to Japan not only takes away the hope of Pakistan bringing an Asiad gold medal home but also ends the team’s chance of directly qualifying for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. “It is not a joke that you lost a match which could have been won quite easily to confirm a place in the final. I will suggest the government to take strict action against those who are responsible,” Samiullah said.

Known as Flying Horse, Samiullah said the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) was responsible for the ousting of the national team from the gold medal race.

Meanwhile, Col. Mudassar, a former PHF secretary said the federation had fielded totally demotivated troops in the Asian Games and it seemed there was no any sound planning for the event. “Look, just few days before the departure for the Asian Games, the hockey players have revolted for not getting their daily allowances. They were openly asking for their dues in media. But instead of giving them their dues on time to mentally prepare them for the big gala, the PHF sent its development squad to Canada for no purpose. Though Shahbaz was a good player but as administrator he has proved as a total failure,” added Mudassar.

While commenting on the match, Samiullah said that Japan deserved to win as they kept upper hand with a slim 1-0 lead throughout the game. He further said though Japan displayed a fast game, Pakistan should have played a slow game to break the rhythm of the rivals. But Pakistan also tried to play fast game and made unforced errors. Samiullah claimed that had India and Pakistan won their respective semi-final, India would have won the final, too. He claimed India had better chances than Pakistan. The two teams will clash for the bronze medal match.

Published in Daily Times, September 1^st 2018.