Pakistan hockey team improving, claims Sohail Abbas

Pakistan's world record goal scorer Sohail Abbas said on Saturday that national team was improving under Dutch Van dan Michael and they will be in a good shape before London Olympics 2012. "Pakistan hockey team is showing improvement and heading in a right direction for next year's Olympic Games," he told APP in an interview here on his return after a month-long European sojourn.
"It was training tour and our coach told us not to worry about the results and play to our best," he commented. "Coach tried different combinations and is interested in developing structure of Pakistan team ahead of Champions Trophy and Olympics," he pointed out.
"Result wise it was not be very impressive tour but boys learnt a lot by playing against best European teams like Germany, Netherlands, Great Britain, Belgium and Ireland," Sohail, who scored highest number six international goals, said. "Our hockey problem is that we were not playing too many games against Europeans and because of security problem these teams are not touring our country," Sohail Abbas, who mostly played at half back position, said.
34-year-old Sohail Abbas said because of his vast international experience, Dutch was using him in the midfield to feed the forwards and absorb opponent's attacks. Commenting on his fitness, Sohail Abbas said as per the test carried out by the team trainer, he was among the top four.
He said senior players and former Pakistan captains Shakeel Abbasi, Rehan Butt, Salman Akbar and Waseem Ahmed played well during the tour. "But as far as his and other seniors fitness was concerned it was upto the selectors and team management to decide their fate," he added. However, he expressed his eagerness to continue play till the next Olympics to bring honour and glory to the country. "During our stay in Netherlands team players went through various tests and a psychologist also spent time with the players," he noted.
He said through a scientific fitness players are updating their trainer and coach about their fitness with a special meter which transferring all the information of players via internet. About the junior players he said Muhammad Rizwan was performed well upfront, Muhammad Rashid in the halfline and Muhammad Irfan in deep defence. He said on the advice of the coach, he was also providing specialised training to full backs in penalty corner drills.