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Hockey team decides to retire
PHF fires
team management, selection committee
Statesman
Report
KARACHI: Hours after the PHF
fired team management and selection committee, all 18 players of
Pakistan hockey team announced to resign from the national team
following their lowest ever finish in the game's World Cup.
Canada defeated four-time champion
Pakistan 3-2 in the playoff for the last two positions in the
12-nation tournament Thursday.
"We all the 18 players have
decided in consensus that we are retiring from the hockey
accepting the responsibility for the team's poorest ever
performance in the game," captain Zeeshan Ashraf told newsmen on
telephone from New Delhi.
Ashraf denies any pressure on
the team for the decision to quit the game, adding that all the
players "feel sorry for their performance in the world cup".
Earlier Pakistan Hockey
Federation (PHF) on Thursday sacked its hockey team officials
and dissolved the national selection committee after the four
times champions had their worst ever finish in the World Cup.
The Pakistan team finished last
in the World Cup in New Delhi after losing to 2-3 to Canada in
the 11th-12th place playoff on Thursday.
"Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF)
president Qasim Zia has dissolved the team management and
National Selection Committee after the poor performance of the
team in World Cup," a PHF statement said on Thursday.
Team management given the sack
included manager Asif Bajwa, coach Shahid Ali Khan and assistant
coach Shafqat Malik, while selection committee included chief
selector Hassan Sardar, Rana Mujahid Ali, Khalid Bashir, Farhat
Khan and Muhammad Shafiq.
Qasim said that after the team
returns home, the PHF will call its executive board meeting and
will hold an inquiry for the poor performance in the world cup.
He also clarified that Bajwa will remain PHF secretary.
PML-N leader Iqbal Ihsan blamed
the government for the hockey team's humiliating defeats in the
world cup and said that PHF chief instead of tendering
resignation has put responsibility on the team management and
selection committee.
Former greats, meanwhile,
launched scathing criticism of the PHF for the World Cup
debacle. Islahuddin Siddiqui, former captain, said the PHF
should sack Bajwa as secretary, and held him responsible the
team's performance.
Akhtar-ul-Islam, another former
Olympian and an ex-secretary of the PHF, agreed with Islah and
said all the culprits responsible for the "embarrassing show"
should be punished.
M Saqlain, former Pakistan
captain, said the PHF has let Pakistan down and should be
dissolved to allow a new management to rebuild the national
team. |