LAHORE - Former hockey world cupper Qasim Khan has called upon the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) to reconsider its decision of appointing aged Olympians as coaches of the national senior and junior hockey teams. "Over the years, hockey has changed a lot, shifting from grass to synthetic turf, becoming a science with frequent changes in the rules, pure reliance on speed and fitness rather depending on sheer technique. In such circumstances, appointing worn out former Olympians as the custodians will not help in reviving the fortune of the national teams," he said here on Saturday. He added the PHF had also appointed a selection committee whose members didn’t have the experience of playing hockey at plastic surface and it seemed that the PHF had compromised with a certain group of former Olympians who were the critics of their polices in recent years. "With each passing day we are going down in hockey, we finished at number 11th in the World Cup, out of 12 teams competition and today we are even struggling at Asia level and our team failed to defend the title of the Asian champions," he said. “There is dire need to bring in those players who have the sufficient knowledge of modern day hockey and if it is needed we can the option to hire the services of a foreign coach who should be given freedom under a long term plan to reorganise our hockey on the pattern of most successful countries including Australia, Germany and some European countries." He said unfortunately club hockey was dying in Pakistan and the PHF had failed to arrest this downfall as qualified coaches were not attached with the club teams to introduce latest hockey to the aspiring players.–Staff Reporter