Champions Trophy debacle alarming for Pak hockey

ISLAMABAD: It was a share disappointment to see Pakistan team finishing last in the 37th and concluding Champions Trophy (CT).

The results in Breda, Holland where barring one match Pakistan lost all is a clear indication that our national game desperately needs remedial measures. The result in the concluding event was more alarming with the fact that Pakistan produced reasonably good performance during the last two Champions Trophy events it participated. On both occasions greenshirts finished on the victory stand. In 2012 Trophy in Melbourne, Pakistan defeated the best including India and Germany to earn bronze and in 2014 in India, even Holland and hosts country were no match to greenshirts on their way to earn silver.

Surprisingly in 2014, the then Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) headed by Akhtar Rasool did not even have the funds to send the team to India and had it not been to the last minute help from Omar Associates, chances were there that the team would not even be in a position to compete in the event. But thanks to secretary PHF Rana Mujahid personal efforts, Pakistan team got enough finances for the trip and ultimately the team justified its participation by finishing with silver medal.

There was however no dearth of finances this time around. According to an estimate the PHF has spent around Rs 50 million alone on the participation in the Champions Trophy that includes expenditures on the camp training in Pakistan and later in Holland. Yet the results turned out to be the worst-ever in the history as was the case in the recently held Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.

Yet another bad news came from Canada where Pakistan A team that also had services of 24-26 years old players were beaten badly by Canadian Youth. It would be nothing less than a terrifying news for the future of Pakistan hockey to know that PHF invested millions on players and officials travel to Canada for scoring mere one goal and conceding no less than 20 against a nation that does not fall amongst the top ten in the world. Just recently one of the minnows of hockey world Japan deprived Pakistan of three-nation title also participated by 32nd ranked Oman team. Watching Pakistan playing a draw against Oman in the same tournament was yet another shocking result for the nation that now possibly have lost counts as how many times Pakistan have been beaten on hockey field during Brig (rtd) Khalid Sajjad Khokhar era as the president PHF.

Another tournament and another poor finish-this has been the trend in recent past. These last years have been the worst ever in the history of Pakistan hockey. Greenshirts FIH ranking had slipped to all time low (At 14) before recovering somewhat at No 13. Fears are that it would further slip in days to come as an outcome of poor show the team has been going through. To start with it was never a wise decision to appoint local coaches with the national team when Sajjad Khokhar took over the reins of the federation. Since he had finance at his disposal, time and again he was reminded that local coaches have no real knowledge of modern hockey, thus pinning hopes on them would be a futile exercise. The decision of having one after another local coaches backfired to the extent that ultimately the PHF had to bring in Oltmans for the second stint with the national team.

Declining a wildcard entry to play the penultimate Champions Trophy in 2016 and later Azlan Shah Hockey two month back were the decisions contributed to team’s declining standard. Those having other motives in the federation were adamant to have provincial hockey associations of their choice in what they called in less than three months.

Majority of PHF officials were supporting the idea of having new look team. Major part of the first two years have seen them ignoring players like Rizwan Senior, Shafqat Rasool, Mohammad Irfan, Rashid, Tauseeq Irshad, Imran Butt and a few others. Hardly they realized that grooming a player and that too of a quality one has never been an easy job. By finishing last in the Champions Trophy, Pakistan hockey has missed yet another good opportunity to stage recovery and to put the team progress on right track.