The recent appointment of Olympian Akhtar Rasool as the coach of Pakistan’s national hockey team in place of The Netherlands’ Huel is an interesting first in the annals of hockey.
Its for the first time, a former National Federation President will be the chief coach of its national hockey team, especially in Asia.
Akhtar Rasool, who became the first player-president of Pakistan in the late 90s – before he went absconding in the awake of imposition of military rule of his friend-prime minister Nawaz Sheriff — or for that matter in any Asian country, has also achieved another feat of first player-president-chief coach of Pakistan team.
An illustrious player himself, son of Olympian gold medalist Ghulam Rasool, is also winner of both Olympic and World Cup Golds.
As he leads his team to London Olympics, much of future of Pakistan hockey will depend on how will he shape up the team in four months.
Akhtar will train Pakistan national team for the London Olympics as he is appointed national coach in the Executive committee Meeting of the Pakistan Hockey Federation which he headed for couple of years in the late 90s.
Akhtar is a staunch supporter of India-Pakistan hockey, and the series between the two countries was revived after a gap of 10 years in 1998 when he was PHF chief.
IHF and PHF had built an excellent relationship in that spell, which resulted in KPS Gill and Akhtar contesting Azlan Shah’s strong hold, Asian Hockey Federation.
The duo lost heavily, but the series was a huge success with Dhanraj Pillay and Shahbaz Ahmad leading the sides in four Indian centres, and in five Pakistan centres.