Aim to win five-test series against China: Zaka 

LAHORE—Pakistan hockey team’s chief coach and manager, former olympian, Khawaja Zak uddin said the immediate task ahead of team is to win five-test series in China next month to start its preparations on a positive note for Olympics.
“We need a good beginning to kick off our preparations for Olympics and we must win the coming series against China”, he told here on Thursday on the start of the National hockey camp with 34 players attending.
Former right winger who served Pakistan from 1958-66 was of the view that considering China, “hockey underdogs” is a mistake as they have improved a lot in recent years and blending into a winning combination.
“If we look at the previous record, we lost twice to China (first in Doha Asian Games and then in Asia Cup in Chennai) and played two drawn games and it is not a good record and we need to lift our performance”, he said.
He said his immediate priority is to improve the defence of the team besides making a lot more improvement in the goal keeping which were the two main weaknesses noticed during the Champions Trophy in Malaysia.
“The coming months before the Olympics are a challenge for the team management in order to make the team capable of fetching desired results in Olympics”, he asserted. The former Vice Captain of national team said before taking part in Olympics the national team will be playing around thirty matches which is an ample practice to fully prepare for the mega event. “After the tour of China we will be having a month long tour of Europe in summer followed by participation in a four-nation tournament in Dublin (Ireland) and keeping in view that much of high profile practice there should be no excuse for not producing good results in Olympic”, he maintained. The chief coach said he will be concentrating on bettering defence and bettering the physical fitness of the players.
“If we have to overpower high-flying Chinese team and European nations we have to enhance our stamina to be in prime form during both the halves of the play”, he said. “We are under immense load of pressure because we are 6th in the world and we now have a chance to improve our ranking because we will be playing non stop hockey till Olympics”, he said. The team official rejected a questioner that playing around 30 matches in coming six months will be a tiring job and it could bring negative impact on the showing of the team in Olympics. “Most of the hockey playing countries are following the similar pattern and I believe it is not that much of work load the player will be facing as participation in Olympics requires top most form”, he said.
Answering a question he said the former captain Muhammad Wasim who was among the camp probables has informed that he will not be joining the camp as he has engagements with professional league in Germany. “If he is not available for the camp then it is hard to say about his selection”, he said adding, “the performance of former captain Muhammad Saqlain who is making a come back after almost a year will be known in a days time as the camp progresses”.—Agencies