Slowly but surely Pakistan hockey is improving: Khokhar

KARACHI: Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) president Brig (retd) Khalid Khokhar has said that they are now aiming to qualify for 2020 Olympics and organise Pakistan Hockey League next year.

Talking to ‘The News’ on Wednesday, he said that during the last couple of years, PHF had revived the national game. “When we took charge of PHF, Pakistan hockey team had failed to qualify for the World Cup and the Olympics. More than 12 domestic hockey teams had been closed and our leading players were jobless. Youngsters were not desirous of playing hockey because things were topsy-turvy,” he added.

“We first breathed life into the domestic structure, established new domestic teams, including Fauji Fertilizers, SNGPL, ZTBL, OGDCL, POF Wah, and got re-opened a number of other teams. We also introduced four to six big hockey competitions with handsome amounts of prize money, including COAS championship, Nishan-e-Haider, nine-a-side and five-a-side tournaments, and Chief of Naval Staff championship. Besides, we organised the first-ever National Under-16 school championship in Khairpur,” the PHF president said.

He said that their biggest achievement was providing jobs to around 100 players who had taken part in the training camps of Pakistan senior or junior teams. “The young generation is again taking up hockey as it sees a bright future in hockey.We invited the top officials of International Hockey Federation (FIH) and Asian Hockey Federation (AHF) to Pakistan to show them that Pakistan is a safe country,” he said.

He mentioned that due to the help of FIH and AHF, a World Hockey XI, and former legends Paul Litjens, Jan Bovelander, 11 foreign goalkeepers from Argentina and Australia visited Pakistan. “It was the first time in history that foreign players from these countries participated in our domestic hockey,” he said.

He stated that slowly but surely the game was coming back on track. He said that because of the lack of international experience, a big gap had been created between Pakistan and the top teams of world hockey. “So we hired the services of the world’s most famous coach Roelant Oltmans and other foreign experts.

“The appointment of Oltmans proved successful as the Green-shirts played outstandingly in the recently-concluded Commonwealth Games in Australia after only twenty days of his coaching. We did not lose any match and came back undefeated for the first time in several years,” said Khokhar. But he admitted that a lot of work had to be done to improve the ranking of Pakistan.

He said that PHF secretary Shahbaz Ahmed had done a great job. “His experience, international fame and contacts helped PHF a lot in all its endeavours,” he added. Khokhar said that PHF was going to organise a six-nation tournament in September in Pakistan.