At the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, Pakistan, for the first time since that annus horribilis of 1986, when they crashed to a 11th place finish at the World Cup, were among the real contenders for a global title.

The nucleus of the team was the same as formed by MH Atif in late 1987, especially that of the forward line and the deep defence. There was also continuity in the management as well, a rarity in Pakistan. Islahuddin, who had taken the reins just before the 1988 Olympics, was still the manager.

Pakistan had done fairly well in the intervening years at the title tournaments. They had won both the Asian titles, Asia Cup (1989) and Asian Games (1990), and were the runners-up at the 1990 World Cup in Lahore.

But the real factor that made Pakistan hot favourites was a hockey stick. Yes, a hockey stick!

Left full back Khalid Bashir had been a regular since 1987, but his penalty corner conversion had been mediocre till 1991.

In the three major events in 1990, World Cup, Asian Games and the Champions Trophy, his tally of goals was three, one and zero, respectively.

In 1991, late Munawwaruz Zaman replaced Manzoorul Hassan as the coach of the national team. Munawwar transformed Khalid into a penalty corner striker as lethal as any in the world -- virtually overnight. Munawwar, who in his distinguished international career (1971-80) was himself a very good scorer off penalty corners, changed Khalid’s stick. Khalid produced immediate results. He was the joint top scorer at the 1991 Champions trophy with seven goals. He was also Pakistan’s top goal getter at the next edition of the Champions trophy in 1992 with five goals despite missing a couple of matches through illness. Many believed Pakistan would have won the Champions Trophy after 12 years had Khalid appeared in those two games.

Another weak area for the last few years was an inefficient right wing. In all of Pakistan’s glorious eras, right wing had always been Pakistan’s linchpin.

Although right out Qamar Ibrahim had been a regular since 1988 he wasn’t very impressive. This was taken care of by switching centre forward Mussadiq to the right out spot where he settled down well. Right in Tahir Zaman, more or less a regular since 1987, had developed into a world class player.

For the Barcelona Olympics, the team management had selected two for the vital spot of centre forward. M Shahbaz Jr, originally a left side forward, was played as the spearhead in the 1992 Champions Trophy after shifting Mussadiq to the right out position.

The other centre forward was Asif Bajwa, who had only made his international debut at the BMW Tournament just before the Olympics.

Left in Shahbaz Ahmed, captain of the side, and left out Waseem Feroze were  among the best Pakistan has seen.

Shahbaz, the man with electric heels, is one of the game’s all-time greats.

The forward line had good support in centre half Farhat and right half M Khalid (originally a reserve, he had replaced the injured Anjum Saeed in the XI). Left half K M Junaid was as solid as ever in his role of the holding mid fielder.

The deep defence led by goalkeeper Shahid Ali Khan and supported by full backs Khalid Bashir and Rana Mujahid was compact.

At the 1992 Olympics, Pakistan began well by demolishing Malaysia 4-1. Next, they edged past New Zealand 1-0. The unified team of CIS (former Soviet Union) proved no match as the Green-shirts overwhelmed them 6-2.

The toughest match in the pool was against the Netherlands, the world champions. In a well-contested tie, Pakistan emerged deserving 3-2 winners. Penalty corner king Khalid Bashir scored two goals but the piece de resistance came through Tahir Zaman who showed sublime skills in eliminating two defenders before flicking the ball in. The last pool game was against Spain. The hosts enjoyed overwhelming support at the Estadi Olimpic de Terrassa as most of the Spanish players came from Terrassa. The home team didn’t disappoint their fans till half time when the score board read 1-1.

However, it was a different story in the latter part. Pakistan fired all the cylinders and the end result was 6-1. Thus they won all the five pool games.

This made Pakistan most people’s favourites. And the game they displayed against the Germans in the semi-final vindicated the tag. They were clearly the better side and went ahead through Khalid Bashir’s strike off a penalty corner. The Germans managed to equalise through a penalty stroke resulting from their first penalty corner. The pulsating tie entered extra time. Make-shift centre forward Shahbaz Jr missed two sitters. A goal off the second German penalty corner sealed Pakistan’s fate.

The Germans had two penalty corners. They scored off one and the other yielded the penalty stroke which gave them the first goal.

Pakistan’s five penalty corners produced just one goal. They also had more chances in the open play.

The frustration of the defeat was carried into the bronze medal match against the Netherlands where they found themselves down by two goals.

However, Pakistan managed to regroup after half time and in a great spell scored four goals, two each from Khalid Bashir and Shahbaz Jr. The Dutch did manage to score one towards the fag end to make it 3-4 but failed to get the equaliser.

Since that bronze at Barcelona 1992, Pakistan has failed to win an Olympic medal. The Rio 2016 saw Pakistan hockey team failing to even qualify for the Olympics. Hence, the world’s sixth most populous nation achieved another dubious distinction -- not a single sportsperson getting qualification. All the seven Pakistani participants at Rio have entered via either wild card invitations or quota slots.