Pakistan hockey team gets mixed reception upon arrival

AM Khan

LAHORE (TheSportsNext) August 15, 2012: Pakistan hockey squad Wednesday returned home from London Olympics to a mixed reception here at the Allama Iqbal International Airport with dozens of angry fans greeting them with shouts of "shame shame" while others raised slogans in praise of them.

Pakistan crashed out of Olympics after getting hammered by Australia by seven goals in their last pool match before beating Korea 3-2 to settle for a seventh-place.

As the Pakistan players came out of the airport terminal, they were surprised to see the large crowd waiting for them carrying banners and placards.

On one side, some protesters called out "shame shame" and urged Pakistan officials to resign immediately while on the other side, fans congratulated the players and raised slogans in their favour and of the PHF officials.

At one stage, the shouting match between the two groups went out of hand and security officials, who were present in large heavy numbers at the airport, had to intervene to avert a possible clash. The players and officials were brought out of the airport terminal building surrounded by security officials.

Captain Sohail Abbas told the media that the team played their best and the seventh-place finish was "satisfactory".

"They had high expectations from us and that is understandable but people must also face reality. I think given our team we did very well to finish seventh and our performance was satisfactory," he said.

Sohail pointed out that except for one match against Australia, the players had really tried hard and could have reached the semi-finals.