Zia vows to regain lost glory but gives no deadlines

LAHORE - The newly-appointed president of the Pakistan Hockey Federation Qasim Zia would be seeking his elections at the PHF congress meeting on October 20 before forming an advisory board for decisions on a number of crucial matters. In his first interaction with the media as president of the PHF, Qasim Zia sounded cautions in setting up time frame or announcing targets but said that he wanted to see Pakistan win first the 2010 Asian Games gold. He said that whatever he would do would be for the betterment of the national sport but would be with the advise of the former players. "Before I go into further details, I would like to clear a few things. The PHF had Rs 50 million out of which Rs 15 million has been reserved for the development projects. It leaves us with Rs 33.7 million," he said. The immediate task, he said, is to lift Pakistan to number one spot at least in Asia, where it is reeling at the sixth and eighth in the world. He said he would use all his abilities to lift the game to its old level. "Its an uphill task and with my team I am hopeful to bring back the winning streak," he added. "I would go for the development of the sports from grass roots level and form a check and balance system to monitor the progress. But first we have to look at where it all went wrong. "We would be hold dialogue for bilateral series with different countries including series with India," he maintained. "Once I am elected by the congress we would address all sort of issues. We would like lure in corporate sector, involve government to get jobs for the players and seek finances while giving incentives to young players who won't be selected in the national team," he added. "Like in the past, I want to have different age group teams with budding youth ready to replace the outgoing players and with my experience and energy of Asif Bajwa we would cover the gap of my times hockey and modern era game," said he. "The game has turned scientific and things would be addressed to the requirement. If we required a foreign coach we would attach a local coach with him," he said. He further said that every policy would be made in consultation with the PHF team. He also showed his intention to attach entertainment with the game to pull crowd and even also plan to relaunch the logo of the PHF. He concluded the briefing with a slogan 'believe in Pakistan, believe in hockey. We will make it happen'.

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