Olympian Ayaz appointed as chief coach

LAHORE: Former Olympian, Ayaz Mahmood on Friday was named chief coach of Pakistan senior hockey team and another duo of former olympians, Muhammad Shahbaz Junior and Kamran Ashraf will be assisting him to revive the sagging fortunes of the team.This was stated by President, Pakistan Hockey Federation, Qasim Zia at a news conference which was also attended by Secretary, PHF, Muhammad Asif Bajwa and both the coaches here at National hockey stadium.“Ayaz is abroad these days and he will be assuming his duties soon,” he said adding, “We have pinned a lot of hopes on the new team management to lift the performance of the team.”While giving a thorough analysis of the new team management, he said it comprises those former players who started playing hockey at astro turf and they know the game better than those former olympians whose career was confined to grass hockey.“It is a big responsibility given to this set of Olympians because they are young and know the requirement of modern day hockey which only revolves around prime fitness,” he asserted.Qasim Zia said the PHF consulted notable former Olympians of past and present and took them into confidence before finalising the team management.“The immediate task which will be given to the team management is to motivate the team to qualify for the World Cup qualifying by winning the qualifying round next year,” he added. But the task appears uphill as one team from giants of hockey from Asia including South Korea, new hockey power, China, former world champions India will be qualifying from Asia.“Our first priority is to form a formidable side capable of producing good results and after the qualifying round we will be concentrating to produce encouraging results in 2010 Asian Games,” said the PHF Chief. The new management will work till the qualifying rounds of the World Cup.He said PHF has opened the doors of selection for all the players including those who are currently playing professional league in Europe.“They (players) have to prove their fitness and they will be giving a commitment to represent Pakistan in five major tournaments including World Cup, Champions Trophy, Asian Games, Asia Cup and Commonwealth Games,” he said adding “ If they agree to these terms and conditions they are welcome otherwise they will not be considered for selection”.He said PHF has hired the services of a Dutch hockey expert Wouter Tazelaar to find ways and means to help establish the game on solid lines at grass root level besides grooming local coaches.“ We are not going to hire the services of a foreign coach because we have faith in our own coaches, the foreign expert will be hired to address problems of identifying at early level and to improve the coaching structure and to look after academies “,he asserted.He said at the moment PHF was striving to put things in order to launch its efforts for the revival of the game. “ We will be implementing our development programmes from January next year PHF Chief made it clear that Provincial Hockey Associations must show performance to contribute in the development of the game and those associations, district associations will have new office bearers which fail to launch activity at grass root level.“We are here to safeguard the future of our national sport and we will be hiring the services of former olympians to train players at specialised positions including goal keeping,” he said.

News Source:http://thearynews.com/