LAHORE, June 26: Pakistan hockey captain Mohammad Saqlain on Sunday said retired penalty corner specialist Sohail Abbas should never be invited for any event in future.
“Sohail was a good player but since he does not want to join team again, he should not be considered in future. We can win without him,” he told reporters on Sunday.
Sohail refused to join the national training camp starting at Army Stadium, Rawalpindi from July 1 for back-to-back tournaments in Germany and the Netherlands in August.
Sohail, who called it a day along with captain Waseem Ahmad after Lahore’s Champions Trophy in December last, has turned down PHF’s offer for the third time. Sohail refused to join the camp, saying the PHF included his name in the list of 29 probables without consulting him.
“Sohail prefers playing league abroad, but his first priority should have been Pakistan,” Saqlain said.
He complained Pakistan hockey players were paid a meagre sum of Rs500 as daily allowance whereas in league hockey they earned huge amount.
Saqlain, who is famous for his violent temper and recently got a one-match suspension during Azlan Shah Cup in Kuala Lumpur for hitting a South Korean, said although Sohail had a good record of scoring goals on penalty corners, but he had no worth as a defender.
Even if Sohail Abbas is not much worth as a defender, he is the best with penalty corners. I guess he is much better than any other specialist. He has scored more goals in hockey than any other person in history and he always had a ratio of over 1 goal per game.
He retired (for money or whatever reasons) and he was never interested in coming back. He was the best player we got after Shahbaz Senior even if we consider his field game to be nil. It is not good for any hockey player or official to give such remarks about him.
Without him Pakistan failed to convert any of the 6 penalty corners they got against Malaysia and also failed to score otherwise, thus failed to make it to finals.
Mr Saqlain should shup up his hole and continuue concentrating on hitting other players with his hockey. Sohail Abbas was a very improved sound defender during his last playing days. PHF should be careful while making such big-mouths captains.
I think the bigger issue is the paltry amounts paid to national team players. Hockey players are paid such rediculously low compensation that it is natural that they'd look elsewhere to save some kind of retirement funds. 500 per day mein tau daaRh bhi geeli nahi hoti, aaj kal ke zamanay mein.
I'd say Sohail is 100% right. The guy has to think of his old age too.