While you were sleeping! [The News]

By Alam Zeb Safi , The News

KARACHI: Pakistan football team management made a blunder during the team’s recent tour of Lebanon when it held a practice session after reaching Beirut on February 17 without their two key players who were fast asleep in their hotel rooms.

A player confided in ‘The News’ on Saturday that the managers had forgotten to awake Saddam Hussain and Saadullah from sleep which is why they missed the training session.

The lapse on the part of the management had annoyed coach Mohammad Shamlan. However, it was manager cum physiotherapist Dr Kamran Mehdi who pacified the coach, the player mentioned.

He said that it was not only a single blunder as the air pressure in footballs with which the team was practicing was not sufficient.

The player also revealed that the luggage of the Pakistan team had not been off-loaded by the aircraft after it had landed in Beirut due to unknown reasons. And it was only in the evening that the team management collected the luggage.

Along with Dr Kamran, this time Asghar Anjum was accompanying the squad as assistant manager/assistant coach.

This is not the first time that the managers have committed such mistakes. During Pakistan team’s stay in Kyrgyzstan at the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Challenge Cup Qualifiers last year, a player had violated a serious rule but no action was taken by the management against him.