A Great Finish by Pakistan in an otherwise dull year

Hockey is not only Pakistan’s national game but also the only sport which has given us golds and silvers at the Olympics. A leading sports broadcaster rightly said, “Hockey is ingrained in the psyche of our nation”.

The 1994 World Cup was the last title victory for Pakistan and they had not won the Asiad gold since 1990. In fact, the green shirts had not been able to reach the final at the Asian games for last 20 years; astonishing as Pakistan in nine appearances till 1990 had won the gold seven times and were the silver medalists on the other two occasions.

All this makes the gold medal at the 2010 Asiad a real special one. It has ended the longest title drought in Pakistan’s hockey history. The automatic qualification for the 2012 Olympics is icing on the cake. Going to the qualifiers is depressing for a country with a pedigree as good as Pakistan. Moreover, the players and especially the management would have been under great pressure till the qualifiers. Remember, India, the record eight time Olympic gold medalists, failed to qualify for the last Olympics. In case of Pakistan hockey not making to the Olympics, it would have been a really miserable sight to see only two or three wild card entrants behind the Pakistan flag during the opening ceremony at the 2012 Olympics; humiliating for world’s sixth most populous country.

So the year ends on a good note for Pakistan hockey after the disastrous campaigns in World Cup and Commonwealth Games.

The 2010 Asiad campaign turned out to be a fairy tale story for Pakistan. Starting with overwhelming victories against lesser opponents, they went down to India, recovered to beat the two time defending champions in the semi final via a nerve wrecking penalty shoot out and then won the final against Malaysia with a planned and skilful display including some captivating short passing of vintage touch.

The management and selection committee took some courageous decisions e.g. recalling Sohail Abbas and Salman Akbar. Though past his prime, even now Sohail is the best penalty corner option for Pakistan plus his name still sends shiver in the spines of opponents, at least among the Asian teams, and Salman was, for many, Pakistan’s Man of the Tournament. In fact, the federation had been under criticism for persisting with the old guard especially after the successive failures in the title tournaments but they have been vindicated and credit should also go to Michel van den Heuvel, the Dutch coach of the team. He cleverly utilised the rolling substitution rule to not let the old legs tire too much. The seniors like Waseem, Sohail, Salman, Zeeshan, Rehan, Abbasi, etc. also knew that it was probably their last opportunity to figure in some meaningful victory and their body language told that. It was best epotimised by Rehan praying with tears in his eyes during the penalty shoot out of the semi final.

After this success: The most immediate priority was rewarding the players. The federal, government, the Punjab provincial government and Pakistan Olympic Association have announced very handsome money. But long term measures are more important. Well-paid jobs in PIA, Customs, banks, etc. used to be the greatest attraction for players (and their parents) in opting hockey as a career. It is no longer the case for last many years despite the ‘orders’ of two Prime Ministers including the present incumbent. This is the ideal opportunity for the PHF to exhort the powers that be to revive the job quotas for hockey players.

The victory is always sweet but the hockey officials should not get carried away with this success. Luck also played its part. Pakistan lost to India for the fourth consecutive time this year though it was a close match. In the semi-final, they scrapped past the two time defending champions only through the penalty stroke shoot out. Then they were lucky to face Malaysia in the final who were appearing in the gold medal match of the Asian games for the first time, having won the bronze as many as six times apart from finishing fourth on four other occasions. The East Asians were clearly over awed by arguably the greatest match in their long history. The greatest strength had been penalty corner conversion, who can forget Amin Rehman’s semi final brace against India which turned the match upside down, but the nerves told in the final and the ball was not even stopped properly off the two of the three penalty corners that came Malaysia’s way. In addition, there were many other unforced errors.

So without taking any credit from the Pakistani boys, who deserve all the praise, one should also realistically analyse the whole picture. There is also the matter of senior players. Pakistan’s next major commitment would be the 2012 Olympics. Will it be wise to count on these old war horses for the mega event ? This is a million dollar question. The Olympic qualification has given breathing space to the PHF. Now they can do experimentation over next year and a half. Pakistan’s junior age group teams have been doing well recently. The under 18 squad won the junior Asia Cup in 2009 and were silver medalists at the youth Olympics this year. Talented players from that group can be inducted in the senior squad and assessed against quality opposition. Even if only a few of them are found up to the mark they can help make Pakistan a fine combination of old and young by the time of the London Olympics. Now Pakistan is the Asian games’ champion so the big names of world hockey would be more welcoming. Hence efforts should be made to arrange tours of top European hockey countries, Australia, etc.

They are out of the big league for quite some time. Now things change. The next target is this year’s Champions trophy. Having lost all the four matches to India, Pakistan has to prove their mettle in India where the prestigious event will take place at the fag end of 2011.

The whole nation rightly celebrated the long awaited hockey title. The party time is now over. The serious business should start now and no stone be left unturned to keep the momentum going in order to achieve the ultimate goal: revival of the glory days of the past.

Ijaz Chaudhry writes on hockey and other sports.
For more about him and his published work visit www.sportscorrespondent.info