Pakistan hockey legend Tahir Zaman feels both India and his country need strong youth development programmes and quality home-grown coaches instead of looking for "short-cuts" if the two nations want to reclaim their glorious past in the game.
Both eight-time Olympic champions India and Pakistan might have an illustrious history, but the two nations are presently struggling to match the standards of teams like Australia and European countries.
While Pakistan hockey suffered a major jolt in August when the four-time champions failed to qualify for 2014 World Cup for the first time, India narrowly secured a berth in the quadrennial event to be played at The Hague, Netherlands after Australia won the Oceania Cup.
Asked what was the way forward for the sub-continental giants, Zaman simply said, "There is no short-cut to success."
"From my point of view the need of hour for both India and Pakistan is to work on development programmes. We need to work on youth, provide international level training to youngsters so as to help them grow as quality players," the former Pakistan captain told PTI in an interview.
"If we keep on searching for shortcuts and expect results in just six months, it won't be a realistic approach. The realistic approach is to work at grassroot level. It's high time we correct our process, give a new direction to the working system," he said.
Zaman said without quality coaches, both India and Pakistan would not be able to produce world-class players.
