‘Disappointed’ Aikman wants to do well in Jr World Cup

Bangladesh youth hockey team's coach, Siegfried Aikman, has expressed his disappointment at the cancellation of a proposed Switzerland tour ahead of the upcoming FIH Hockey Junior World Cup, which will be held from November 28 to December 10 in India.

Bangladesh were scheduled to play two matches each against the youth teams of Switzerland and Austria during a European tour early next month. However, due to visa complications, the tour has been shelved.

Describing the reason for the cancellation of the tour during a press briefing at the Bangladesh Hockey Federation headquarters on Saturday, general secretary Riazul stated that since the tour was not part of an official international tournament, the Swiss Embassy did not grant visas for 26 players in a single application.

When asked how disappointed he was with the whole episode, coach Aikman said:

"I'm very disappointed. I was very upset, but you always need to have a Plan B, and our Plan B is having the senior team and challenging them. And it was a real fight (between the seniors and juniors) and that helped us."

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Outlining his original plan for the Junior World Cup, Aikman implied that half of his target had been achieved following the team's Malaysia tour last month, where Bangladesh lost four out of five matches.

"In Malaysia, our focus was only on defending. So we were not playing our attacking game. The idea was to test our defensive game against high-performing teams. After coming back, we worked on our defensive game and it was good.

"The idea was that we would check how the combination from attack and defence would work in Switzerland, but unfortunately it didn't happen."

As part of Plan B, 31 players are currently training under Aikman for both the Junior World Cup and next month's series against Pakistan's senior team, which will serve as qualifiers for the Senior Men's World Cup.

Aikman, who previously coached Pakistan and Oman, said his target in the Junior World Cup would be to compete against higher-ranked teams in the group.

"For realistic goals, I don't want to lose by big numbers. I would like to play competitive matches," the Dutchman said. "In our pool, we have Australia, France, and Korea. We want to surprise Korea and we want to do well against the other teams."

According to the BHF general secretary, the team will leave for India on November 18 and will train there while playing practice matches against Switzerland and Chile before the 24-team tournament begins.

The immediate focus, however, is on the upcoming best-of-three-match series against Pakistan, scheduled for November 13, 14, and 16 under natural lights at the Maulana Bhasani National Hockey Stadium.

The winners of the series will secure a place in next year's FIH Senior Men's Hockey World Cup.