News Desk
ISLAMABAD: Once shining on global sports horizons by securing all big international titles, Pakistan’s hockey began witnessing continuous deterioration after Air Marshal Noor Khan’s tenure.
There were times when Pakistan hockey teams were the most successful ones in World Cups, Champions Trophy, and Olympics winning 4 World Cups in 1971, 1978, 1982, and 1994.
Pakistan also has 3 gold medals in Olympic Games field hockey tournaments in Rome in 1960, Mexico City in 1968, and Los Angeles in 1984.
Then its downfall started with its respective chiefs failing to maintain the victories and Pakistan could not even qualify for the 2014 and 2023 Hockey World Cups.
Hockey Team’s non-qualifying for the mega-events like World Cup and the Olympics never meant that it could not rise from slumber again. But, only after the stakeholders are agreed to bring it back on track by strict steps from the grassroots to the top level.
The star Shahbaz Ahmed Sr. while speaking about Pakistan hockey’s revival, said that proper education of players is vital as an illiterate cannot carry on in international sports.
Need of Hockey centers
He said that there is also a need to build 4 to 5 hockey centers in Pakistan directly operated under the federation. Youth must be picked from the grassroots, educated, trained, and fed properly at these centers according to international standards.
Another brilliant Olympian Shahnaz Shaikh said that young players should be blended with experienced hands to make a squad that has the potential to defeat any side in the world.
He said for players it is a requirement that they improve their points marking and movements in the D area. They should improve the conversion of penalty corners and avoid counterattacks.
He added that there were around twenty-eight Education Boards in Pakistan with hundreds of schools affiliated with each Board. Therefore, if each government school is given the opportunity to participate in tournaments, the total number of playing teams would be in the hundreds. This practice would be like a talent hunt discovering new players.
Olympian Rana Mujahid Ali also expressed his dismay over inadequate facilities in even major cities to promote the national game. He said that Faisalabad has always been a center for hockey, contributing more players to the national hockey team than any other city. Pakistan’s out of four World Cup wins, the team leaders such as Khalid Mehmood, Akhtar Rasool, and Shahbaz Senior belonged to Faisalabad.
He said that even today, there is no shortage of good hockey players in Faisalabad, but they lack facilities and face problems in improving their game.
