Subcontinent hockey will never flourish if India, Pakistan don't play each other: Shahnaz

Bhubaneshwar: Pakistan coach Shahnaz Sheikh sought to bury the issue related to the behavior of his players after victory against India, saying the two neighbouring countries need to play against each other to lift hockey in the sub-continent. “We have to accept the FIH decision because we want to improve our relations with India. India wanted the guilty players to be suspended. We want bilateral series with India. Both the countries need to lift Asian hockey,” Sheikh told reporters after Pakistan lost the final to Germany. [caption id=“attachment_1849581” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  The Pakistan hockey players made obscene gestures at the crowd in their Champions Trophy semi-final win over India. AFP[/caption] The Pakistani players made obscene gestures towards Indian fans and media after their win over India. They removed their shirts, used foul language, prompting their coach Shahnaz to come into action and take away his players. After Hockey India took up the issue, the International Hockey Federation (FIH) was forced to suspend two players and reprimand one. “We can’t fight crowd. Crowd supported us but abused us also during warm-up. Our players got suspended we lost the match so I feel now we should bury this issue here,” Sheikh said. “The two countries need to play hockey against each other. Until and unless we don’t play against each other sub-continent hockey will never flourish.” “I agree it was not sportsmanship. I have already apologized for that. I am thankful to the media and Hockey India. Their arrangements were tremendous. We thank them for providing all the facilities. We are taking home good memories from here,” he added. Speaking on Sunday’s final against Germany, Sheikh criticized the umpiring standard in the match. “Umpiring was not good today. I think we played against 13 today. Umpires denied us a penalty stroke and a penalty corner. This is my observation,” he said. Pakistan captain Muhammad Imran agreed with his coach. “Obviously I am disappointed with what happened yesterday but this things happen in India-Pakistan match and we need to accept that and move on. We need to come closer to each other. If we continue to fight like this we will remain behind the world,” he said. He, however, said Saturday’s incident might be a retaliation of what happened with them after defeat against India in the Asian Games final in Incheon, South Korea. “We were celebrating and during that one or two players more did wrong and the coach has also punished them. But if you see in Asian Games what happened with us, what happened with our crowd. In the Asian games Indian players did much more than what happened yesterday, but we forgot all that and came here to play,” Imran said. “We are not here to fight.” PTI