BEIJING: Pakistan Hockey Team coach Naveed Alam on Tuesday rejected the criticism of not using the rolling substitution ruling to provide rest to ageing players in the team.
We can not afford to rest our key players like Rehan, Abbasi and Saqlain, he told newsmen when approached to comment on the controversy. We are fully aware of the ruling but will only use it when really required," he remarked and added "I think none of the senior players showed any fatigue against Great Britain. We also inducted young and fresh players but not like Briton as we have our own planning and strategy". Naveed said it was a very important match for us against Great Britain and we wanted to use our all resources. Boys played excellently in the second half but luck was not on our side, he observed. The coach said there were so many missed goals and there was disappointment for us with the outcome and so was our penalty corner conversion rate which was poor and it caused damage.—Agency