LAHORE - Former national hockey coach Kh M Junaid has called for preparing a special strategy for national side in order to enhance its performance in the Champions Trophy Hockey Tournament scheduled to be held from December 22 in Melbourne.
Talking to this scribe here on Monday, Kh Junaid said: “Pakistan hockey team is one of the best teams of the world and it has potential to beat any given opponent. It will be playing two back-to-back tournaments in Australia, nine-a-side super hockey series followed by Champions Trophy and special match planning is required to cope with the might of the opponents,” he said.
Junaid said nine-a-side event would provide much-needed practice to the team ahead of the Champions Trophy as the world’s top teams are taking part in it. “Pakistan need a lot of hard work and commitment to overcome fancied opponents and a good result in nine-a-side event can be a good inspiration to perform in the Champions Trophy,” he added.
He said the participation in nine-a-side tournament would be a great opportunity for Pakistan team which could be a dark horse of the event to surprise any opponent in the Champions Trophy.
Junaid said if the Pakistani players would play according to their full potential, they could beat any opponent no matter how superior it was. “What is needed a full strength rare guard action on part of players in both the events in Australia to lift the team’s ranking and morale,” he added.
“Before playing the Champions Trophy, we can look into our weakness noticed in the nine-a-side tournament to come up with a special match plan to exhibit at higher level of play,” he asserted.