Showdown Turns Nasty But Kookaburras Get Last Laugh
Newcastle Herald
Monday March 27, 2006
SPORTING tensions between Australia and Pakistan reached flashpoint yesterday on the final day of the Melbourne Games when Kookaburras hockey player Robbie Hammond was decked behind play in Australia's gold medal victory.
Australian coach Barry Dancer called on the International Hockey Federation (FIH) to respond quickly to the actions of Pakistan's Tariq Aziz, who was sent off and had already been suspended in the Games for two matches for striking South African Francois Du Plessis."Certainly I didn't see it, so I can't comment on the incident," he said."But I think FIH obviously needs to act quickly on the back of two suspensions in the one tournament."Emotions erupted when Aziz was mobbed by angry Australians in the second half as Hammond lay face down on the field, blood streaming from the right side of his mouth.Prolific scorer Jamie Dwyer did not see the incident, but he said the team was told what happened to Hammond."I didn't see it, but what we've been told is that Rob Hammond was running back to him, and Tariq threw a stick at him and hit him in the head," Dwyer said.The off-the-ball clash was not captured on film, but it heightens the ill feeling between the two sides and further tarnishes the international reputation of Pakistan."If they [Pakistan] are going to stay on the field and do that sort of thing, there is nothing we can do about it," Hammond said through the good side of his mouth after the 3-0 triumph."We just play our own style, and if they end up with 10 men, it will hurt them in the end. My lip will heal. The gold medal will be there forever. "It's a bit hard to comment about. Officials will deal with it; leave it at that."Mate, all that matters is that we got over the line. We come out and we play our style of hockey anything that goes with it, we'll take." Hammond was integral in the Australian win, but Liam De Young's goal from a penalty corner midway through the first half sparked it.Luke Doerner's thundering drive from a second-half penalty corner broke the resolve of the Pakistanis before Dwyer totally demoralised them late in the game when he pirouetted around the goalkeeper to reverse flick Australia's final goal.The Australians still have fresh memories of a tournament in Germany in August last year when Craig Victory had his jaw smashed behind the play by Pakistan captain Muhammad Saqlain, the bad boy of world hockey.Saqlain, who also whacked West Australian Michael Boyce behind play in a pre-Athens tournament in Sydney, will present his appeal against a three-match ban to the Court of Abritation for Sport in Lausanne on April 13.In the first half yesterday, in front of a packed State Hockey Centre crowd, several Australian players had heated clashes with Saqlain, reminding him that the incident with Victory had not been forgotten.After a scuffle between Shakeel Abbasi and Michael McCann early in the match that saw the Pakistan player receive a green card, both McCann and Travis Brooks traded insults with Saqlain.Victory gave Australia the opportunity to complete a grand slam on the international hockey circuit.The reigning Olympic champions won the Champions Trophy in India last year. After successfully defending their Commonwealth Games gold, they can win the World Cup in September to complete the slam.
© 2006 Newcastle Herald