Probe report on Pak Olympic debacle in a month
26th September 2008
The committee constituted by the government to probe the Pakistan hockey team's disastrous performance at the Beijing Olympics held its first meeting on Thursday and will submit its report in a month's time.
The three-member committee is headed by sports ministry official Rana Farrukh and includes former Olympians and captains, Abdul Waheed Khan and Shahbaz Ahmed senior.
"We have talked to the Pakistan team members who are in Karachi, the national selectors who resigned and some former players today and we have got some positive feedback from them which will help us find out why we failed in Beijing," said Farrukh.
Pakistan finished a disappointing eighth - their worst ever performance - in Beijing and have not won a major title since 1994.
Their last major triumph came under the captaincy of Shahbaz who felt it would take five to 10 years before Pakistan hockey emerged champions again.
"The sad part is that all these years the federation has totally ignored grass root level hockey. No talent is coming up because we have not paid attention to junior hockey at all," he stated.
"The biggest problem is that nowadays players also don't have enough commitment in them as they know there is no competition for their spots in the team," he said.
Shahbaz also made it clear that he had no ambitions to become coach of the national team and was working on building his own hockey academy.
Farrukh said the probe committee would meet in Lahore and Islamabad and also summon Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali, president of the hockey federation, before finalising its report.
"Our job is to basically pinpoint the reasons for the Beijing debacle and make recommendations to revive hockey in the country," he added.
Waheed said the sessions with former and present players and selectors was constructive but felt the players were to be blamed for the bad state of hockey.
"If you are going to miss sitters even after playing at the top level for seven years then how can you win? We need to improve the quality of our players," he said.
Source: Times of India