Former Olympian

The inaugural Nations Cup — an eight-nation hockey tournament — has concluded and hosts South Africa have won the event and got promoted to the Pro League for 2023/24.

Pakistan have secured, as usual, the 7th position. The result is the same as we have become used to over the last seven years. Although during this long period Pakistan participated in eight tournaments there has been no reasonable result. Nor have we qualified for any mega event like the Olympics or the World Cup.

If the situation remains like this, I don’t think we will be able to qualify for the next Olympics or the World Cup. Such a pathetic performance from a country which has three and four gold medals at Olympics and World Cup respectively is unacceptable.

Before I elaborate on the performance of the Pakistan team in this tournament let’s talk about the importance of the contest in South Africa. The Nations Cup marks the start of promotion and relegation principle for the Pro League.

The importance of the FIH Pro League is that the champions in 2023/24 and 2024/2025 will earn direct qualification in the World Cup. The winner of 2025/26 will qualify for Olympics 2028.

Keeping in view of the competitive environment and the present performance of the Pakistan hockey team, it’s a very hard task for Pakistan to qualify for the next Olympics or World Cup.

The only chance for qualification for the Olympics is if Pakistan win the Asian Games and Asia Cup for the World Cup. Asian teams like India, Korea, Malaysia and Japan have improved a lot. Pakistan are ranked 17th in the world rankings and fifth in Asia.

They will have to work very hard. But with the present performance I don’t think we can achieve the goal since the game of hockey globally has become much faster. The number of teams has increased.

I remember in the 1976 Olympics we beat Belgium by 5-2. They are now Olympic and World Champions. Even Ireland and France and the RSA, who were previously seen as minnows in international hockey, are a big threat for us. It is high time for Pakistan to think seriously about remedial steps.

The present officials of the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) have been given ample time but unfortunately their speed of thought is not as good as speed of modern hockey.

Let’s talk about the performance of Pakistan in the Nations Cup. Out of five matches, Pakistan won only one match, that too, with a narrow margin. I have minutely watched the matches and the analysis showed that the team was neither physically fit nor played as one unit. Our players let the opponents launch counter-attacks. Most of the goals the team conceded were through turnover by opponents and another weakness was the sustainability till dying minutes as most of the goals were conceded in the last two quarters.

This also indicated the team prepared for two quarters only. The last two quarters are very hard and players get tired due to individual play.

The reason behind this is that hockey tournaments in Pakistan have been squeezed; also, the little international exposure; match temperament is not as good as required; the foreign coach’s defensive training pattern; duration of in-camp training is not enough to build winning combination; under these circumstances three- or four-week training is not enough.

We should go for in-camp training for six to eight weeks. Our situation demands long camping.

In 2015 the then PHF was moving ahead with better results as in 2014 Pakistan played finals of two mega events: Asian Games and Champions Trophy. In one tournament, the team did not do well and on the basis of one tournament the entire PHF was removed.

The present PHF took over with tall claims and promised to streamline the game and bring back the past glory. But from number 10 we have fallen to number 17.

This federation is lucky enough to be still there with such dismal and humiliating results. The fall occurred despite the fact that the government supported PHF financially more than ever.

The authorities must take corrective measures because there is a big gap between the direction and goals of PHF.

Things will become more serious if we drop further in the world ranking. It will mean we will be relegated from next year’s Nations Cup.

nazsheikh@yahoo.com