Lost glory

After 41 years, the Indian men’s hockey team won the bronze medal at the Olympics. Pakistan’s team, however, could not even qualify for the Games. The Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) should answer why our team is not performing well and why it is not in the Top 5 teams. The prime minister should appoint someone who is well experienced and who knows the game to work with the PHF so that our team’s performance can be improved. It seems that the main issue is the lack of adaptability to new techniques. So far, we have not come out of our Asian style of hockey which was very effective some decades ago but is now almost obsolete and has been replaced by the so-called European style.

One is sure that our younger people do not even know that ‘hockey’ – not cricket – is our national sports. There was a time when hockey and squash were Pakistan’s pride – both nationally and internationally – and its heroes, Jahangir Khan and Jansher Khan, were famous all over the world.

Anas A Khan

Edmonton, Canada