By IANS,
New Delhi: Ad-hocism must end in India and Pakistan if hockey has to progress at the international level, says Tayyab Ikram, the International Hockey Federation’s (FIH) director of coaching.
Ikram, a Pakistani who is aware the way the game is run in the two countries, said that both countries should take a different approach to be back among the top hockey playing nations.
“Both countries are important for the FIH because international hockey is incomplete without India and Pakistan. Both the countries have to approach the game in a different way,” Ikkram told select journalists on the sidelines of the Hockey World Cup here.
“From the running of the organisation to appointment of coaches, everything is run in India and Pakistan in an ad hoc way. But things have to improve. Despite a rich history, hockey is not an institution in these two countries. Top teams like the Netherlands will slip down to World No.20, but hockey will still be an institution for them,” he said.
Ikkram feels India and Pakistan have the potential and talent but that does not reflect in their world rankings.
“In FIH we have a High Performance Input unit which was set up in 2006-07 basically for tier II countries. We tried to help India and Pakistan with this unit, but till now they are yet to use it in a full-fledged way,” he said.
“This unit can really help both India and Pakistan to improve the game at the grassroots. We have to change the training hours of the coaches and players into quality hours.”
Ikkram pointed out the two countries need to increase their pool of players for the national team.
“Today both the countries have just 60-70 players in a pool for the national team. It is simply not enough. Ask any coach in India or Pakistan about their second XI, and they will struggle to name it,” he said.