Karachi: Former Pakistani hockey captain Mohammad Saqlain reckons that the current Pakistani squad lacks match-winners, and this will affect the team’s chances in the Hockey World Cup, starting from February 28 in New Delhi.
“Our biggest problem is that there aren’t many match-winners in the Pakistan team. Sohail Abbas is the only one who can win a match through his individual performance and that fact would put him under extra pressure during the World Cup,” Saqlain, as saying.
Saqlain pointed out that Pakistan had fielded better teams in last three World Cups, but it failed to reach top-four stage in any of those attempts.
“In the last three World Cups in 1998, 2002 and 2006 Pakistan played with much better teams. But we never managed to do better than a fifth position. Our team has not entered the World Cup semifinals since 1994 and the problem is the squad that we have sent to India is in many ways weaker than the ones that represented Pakistan in the last three events,” he said.
“That is why I’m not very optimistic about our chances of winning the World Cup. But I must add that in modern day hockey anything is possible. I believe that if this team plays to its potential and has its share of luck we might do well in the tournament,” he added.
Saqlain said that Pakistan’s forwards have seldom shown enough spark in the recent past.
“One fact that bothers me the most is the fact that we don’t have any prolific scorers in our side. I mean to win a tournament like the World Cup you should have around five to six players scoring goals consistently,” he said.
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