Former Olympians ‘in mourning’ for Pakistani hockey

KARACHI: Pakistani former Olympic hockey stars demanded the sacking of the secretary of the country’s hockey federation on Thursday, saying they were “mourning” after a disastrous World Cup showing.

Pakistan finished 12th in the 12-nation event that ended last week in New Delhi, the worst-ever showing for the country, which previously won four world and three Olympic titles.

Around two dozen former team members urged Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) president Qasim Zia to remove secretary Asif Bajwa from his post.

“I will appeal to the government of Pakistan, especially to PHF chief Zia, to save hockey by removing Bajwa because his whimsical decisions have been the root cause of our debacle,” former captain Islahuddin Siddiqui said.

“Our campaign will not finish on ousting Bajwa alone, but we want a complete revival of hockey. We are in mourning and want the government to take serious steps.”

Pakistan lost its opening match against arch-rivals India 4-1, a jolt from which they never recovered, going on to lose to low-ranked South Africa and then Canada in the play-off for 11th and 12th places.

Former star Shahnaz Shaikh termed the result a “tsunami”.

“Our worst-ever showing is like a tsunami in our hockey, which has a resplendent past, a past where we never accepted anything other than gold,” said Shaikh, regarded as the best left-side forward in his heyday.

Shahbaz Ahmed, a member of the last Pakistani team to win the World Cup, in 1994, said Bajwa had to resign.

“It’s imperative now that secretary resigns and after that it will take some time, maybe three, four years, to revive our hockey,” said Ahmed.

Pakistan have won an unprecedented four World Cup titles, but have not won a major competition since their last Cup win in 1994. They finished eighth in last year’s Beijing Olympics, their worst-ever result in the Games.

Former captain Sami Ullah also deplored last week’s result.

“We have forgotten merit, which is the key thing to achieve success,” said Sami, under whom Pakistan won the Asian Games in Delhi in 1982. “We need to have competent people at the helm.”

The former Olympians said they would hold similar press conferences in other cities and meet Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and sports minister Ijaz Jakhrani in an effort to revive Pakistani hockey.