The Sports Ministry has asked former Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali to step down as President of the National Hockey Federation and announced that a comprehensive inquiry would be held into Pakistan’s Olympic debacle at the Beijing Games.

The Ministry said now plans would be formulated keeping in mind future events.

Meanwhile, former Olympian Khawaja Zakauddin has also resigned as the chief coach and manager of the Pakistan hockey team after their disappointing show.

Pakistan put up their worst performance in the Olympic Games finishing eighth after losing out to Australia, Great Britain, Netherlands and New Zealand.

With India not qualifying for the Beijing Games, Pakistan was the only South Asian team in hockey competition, in which Germany bagged the gold medal.

Zakauddin, who returned home with the squad last night, said he had made his mind to step down as he was devastated and hurt by his team’s performance in the Olympic but declined to blame anyone for the performance.

“I don’t want to get into any blame game but the fact is we just didn’t play to the potential and we had a team that should have come on the podium,” Zakauddin said.
Zakauddin’s appointment as chief coach for the Olympics was widely criticised in Pakistan’s sporting circles with former players pointing out at his age and insisting he was out of sync with the requirements of modern hockey.

“We have weaknesses in different areas and we need to work on that. I have stepped down after accepting responsibility for the poor show and to pave way for a new coach,” Zakauddin said. — PTI