Kamran Ashraf a former Hockey (field) player from Pakistan is from a small town called Sialkot. He played as many as 166 internationals from 1993-2002. He was the player of the Millennium and scored nearly 130 goals for his country. Kamran Ashraf had occupied a prime position in the Pakistan squad by playing at the most risky position; the center forward.
Kamran Ashraf is an Olympian too. He played in the 2000 Olympics where he performed with a lot of consistency and potential. He was a student of the Habib public school which is well known for producing many all time greats. The school has produced the greats in the field of cricket, swimming and many other sports. The school has two hockey fields which have produced national players like Sohail Abbas, Hasan Sardar, Qamar Ibrahim, Kamran Ashraf and many more.
There are thousands of reasons for the decline of any hockey team and one of the vital factors is the absence of great forwards. Forwards are the strikers of the game they are the ones who are responsible for the goals to be scored. Kamran Ashraf is the one of the most successful strikers that Pakistan hockey has found. Unfortunately during his period, he was the sole striker for Pakistan. The entire Pakistan attack was dependent on the goals of this great gun.
The Pakistan team during its golden years was unbeatable and looked formidable. One of the big reasons for the success of any team is the key players. The Pakistan Hockey team was dependent on key players like Hasan Sardar but after his retirement during the late eighties, the team needed a replacement. Pakistan has found its replacement, a genius by the name of Kamran Ashraf. Pakistan had the world’s best strikers like Kamran Ashraf and Kashif Jawwid but things were not the same. Pakistan was relying on its defender Sohail Abbas but it was the greatest mistake done by the Pakistan Team. Games are saved by steady defenders but it is won by strikers. Neglecting this ace player Kamran Ashraf was a vital factor in the non performance of the team.
Kamran Ashraf worked very hard for the benefit of the team but certain strategies followed by the coaches went against him. Ashraf expressed that the team officials used to get the strikers to concentrate on penalties rather than attempting to get field goals if Abbas was in the side. He too added that with Sohail Abbas in the team it was good to score goals but at the end of the day it had damaged the team’s progress even more. The strategy of the officials to focus on earning short corners helped Sohail to become the leading goal-scorer of all-time but to Kamran Ashraf it was the vital reason for the down fall of Pakistan’s strong point- the Center forward.
This great player is now busy with his latest coaching assignment. Since he has done many courses held by the Asian Hockey Coaching Federation, he fit the bill and was made the coach of the Bangladesh hockey team. He is optimistic that his team will perform in the next big hockey tournament the Asia Cup which gets under way this December.
He is still a player in the domestic circuit of Pakistan and though he has retired from international cricket, his obsession for the game has not let him retire from the game as of now.
Hassan Sardar | Akhtar Rasool | Shahbaz Ahmad | Sohail Abbas | Islahudin | Samiullah | Waseem Ahmad | Dihan Chand
Tahir Zaman | Kamran Ashraf | Rehan Butt | Manzorul Hassan | Munawar uz Zaman | Asif Bajwah | Saman Rashid |