Losing to India is a big disappointment,Secretary PHF

LAHORE: Secretary,Pakistan Hockey Federation,Muhammad Asif Bajwa has termed Pakistan’s 4-7 defeat to India in Commonwealth Games a big disappointment which spoiled team’s chances to reach the semi finals.“ It was a disappointing show as the team could not sustain the pressure to play India in their own backyard and crowd and this factor dumped it in the match “,he told APP here on Monday.Bajwa while analyzing the performance of the team in the match said players seemed under pressure in the match in which they scored four goals but could not stop the Indian forwards in crunch situations from scoring goals.“ That was the stage where they (players) needed to keep their nerves under control without bowing down to the pressure but they failed to cope with the situation and conceded as many as seven goals which was a big disappointment,” said the PHF official.
He said the chief selector is in India who is minutely watching the performance of the team and his report and the report of team management will be taken into consideration to determine what went wrong in that crucial match.
“ It was a important match to remain in contention but unfortunately after doing good against Scotland,Malaysia and Australia the team failed to rise to the occasion and suffered a bad defeat,” he said.
PHF Secretary said team’s performance against Scotland,Malaysia and Australia was good and unfortunately it could not overcome the pressure situation against India while playing in India.“ Our record is not good when we play India in India and there is dire need to have matches at a neutral venue to ascertain Pakistan team’s performance because in such a situtation the pressure will be equal on both the sides “,he said.
He said commonwealth games will serve as a good training tour for November Asian Games which is the real target of the team.
“ We are focusing on Asian Games and we firmly believe that winning the games title is achievable and we will utilize all resources to achieve this set goal “,he said.
National selector former olympian Muhammad Usman expressed his reservations regarding the performance of senior players and said they failed to support the team in demanding situations.
“ As a selector I feel that they failed to deliver and we will discuss their performance in selectors meeting to decide their fate “,he said.
“ Match against India was the most important as a victory could have taken the team to the semi finals and it was sad to see the team suffering such a bad defeat after doing good in preliminary matches,” he said.
He said junior inducted the team gave their best and some of them impressed with their hockey talent.“ I am not against of having senior players in the side but they could have utilized their experience and made their presence felt in the ground with some sparkling performance,” he said – App