Head coach Zakauddin quits after Olympic debacle

KARACHI: Pakistan’s head coach Khawaja Zakauddin on Tuesday announced his resignation following his team’s humiliating eighth-place finish at the Beijing Olympics last week, writes Khalid Hussain.

Soon after his arrival from Beijing early on Tuesday morning, Zaka said that he takes responsibility for the Olympic debacle but made it clear that most of the other competing teams were much better than Pakistan.

“Believing that I’m responsible for our bad showing at the Olympic Games, I’ve resigned as head coach,” Zaka told ‘The News’. “Our team wasn’t up to the mark in Beijing. In fact the bitter truth is that the four semifinalists were way better than us,” he added.

Pakistan lost to Great Britain in their Olympic opener — a result which pretty much decided that the Greenshirts will miss out on a semifinal spot.

Three-time champions Pakistan defeated underdogs Canada and South Africa in their Pool B games but went on to lose against defending champions Australia and the Netherlands. Their misery worsened in the playoffs when New Zealand — a lower-ranked team — beat them 4-2 to confine the Pakistanis, who made their Olympic debut in 1948, to an all-time low eighth position.

Germany edged out Spain for their Olympic gold while Australia took the bronze ahead of the Dutch.

The top quartet sizzled in Beijing, making it clear that teams like Pakistan and even current Asian powerhouse Korea — who finished a poor sixth — are lagging far behind.

Zaka, a former Olympian, learnt it the hard way.

In the lead up to the Olympics, Zaka showed complete faith in his players’ ability, asking people not to write off Pakistan. “We can win the title in Beijing,” he said just days before leaving for the Chinese capital.

Now Zaka admits that Pakistan need a Herculean effort to come at par with teams like Germany, Spain, Australia and Holland.

“I hope that the new team management will succeed where we failed,” he said. “And I also hope that it would help our players become good enough to compete against the leading teams of the world.”

Coach Naveed Alam is all set to follow suit and announce his retirement on Wednesday (today).

However, senior players like skipper Zeeshan Ashraf and midfielder Muhammad Saqlain are not considering the option of quitting international hockey after what is one of the darkest chapters in Pakistan hockey.

The Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) and the new set of team officials, which is expected to be named within the next few weeks, will take a decision on their fate.

For the team officials, it was the end of the road anyway. Had they decided against resigning, the PHF would have sacked Zaka and company.

The stage is now set for some sweeping changes in the national hockey set-up with PHF president Zafarullah Khan Jamali’s exit.

Jamali will either resign or face the axe from the country’s sports authorities, who have already decided to replace him (Jamali) with Qasim Zia, a former Olympian who is currently a PPP stalwart in the Punjab.

The Sports Ministry has initiated a process of change in the PHF even before the Olympics by replacing the federation’s secretary Khalid Mehmood with Asif Bajwa. At that time it was announced that Bajwa’s was an interim appointment and there is a chance that Qasim Zia might opt to have a secretary of his own choice.

Source: http://www.fieldhockey.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5496&Itemid=1