Qasim, a former Olympian who heads the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF), told `Our Sources` in an interview that he is confident that the Greenshirts will finish on the hockey podium in London which will host the Olympics next August.
“My heart tells me that we won`t come home empty-handed from the Olympics this time,” said Qasim, a member of the Pakistan team that won the 1984 Olympic gold in Los Angeles.
“And its not that I don`t have any solid reasons for being so optimistic,” he added.
Over the last ten months, Qasim has seen Pakistan regaining a lot of lost ground.
Last December, Pakistan were finally able to win back the Asian Games title in the Chinese city of Guangzhou. Earlier this year, they reached the final of the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup in Malaysia before losing to reigning world champions Australia on a penalty shoot-out.
More recently, a young Pakistani team marched into the final of the inaugural Asian Champions Trophy in Ordos (China) earlier this month before succumbing to old rivals India on a tie-breaker.
“The best thing about our team is that after a long time it is playing like a team,” said Qasim. “There is a lot of hunger, motivation and team spirit among the boys which adds to my confidence ahead of the Olympics.”
Pakistan, three-time Olympic hockey champions, last won an Olympic medal in Barcelona in 1992 when they returned home with a bronze. Since then they have failed to win any Olympic medal as dejected Pakistanis saw their teams returning home empty-handed from Atlanta (1996), Sydney (2000), Athens (2004) and Beijing (2008).
Most critics don’t give Pakistan much chance of winning an Olympic medal in London either and they have a point.
Pakistan’s only realistic chances of winning a medal depend on how good the national hockey team performs in London. Though Pakistan have done well at the Asian level in recent times, their track record against top teams like Australia, Germany and the Netherlands isn’t that impressive.
Earlier this year, they finished last in a four-nation event featuring Germany, England and the Dutch hosts in Amsterdam.
But Qasim remains upbeat. “We only lost in the Amsterdam event because of a series of silly mistakes,” he said. “But since then regular training sessions have been really helpful for the boys and I’m sure that by the time they go to London, they will be a different team altogether.”
When Qasim took over as PHF’s president after the Beijing Games where Pakistan had flopped miserably, one of the weaknesses he noted in the national team was its inability to give its best against top teams.
At that time, Pakistan used to be in an awe of stronger oppositions like Australia and Germany.
“Thankfully, that’s not the case any more,” said Qasim. “Now our boys are not scared of any team and that’s a huge improvement.”
Qasim stressed that Pakistan have, over the years, learnt to create scoring chances even against the best teams.
“Our boys create ample number of chances in most matches,” he said. “The only thing they have to learn now is to enhance their finishing skills. They have to learn to capitalise on those opportunities.”
Qasim is confident that under Dutch coach — Michel van den Heuvel — Pakistan are right on target.
“The training is going really well. In the months before the Olympics we are going to train harder besides playing more and more tough games which is why I’m confident that we will go to London fully prepared.”
In the lead up to the London Games, Pakistan will tour Australia in October, play the Champions Trophy in New Zealand in December before embarking on a pre-Olympic tour of Europe.
Qasim stressed that Pakistan’s sports fans should not lose hope as the hockey team has ‘realistic’ chances of winning a medal in London.
“Our target is to finish among the top-3 teams in London and I’m confident that our team will achieve this goal.”
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