Pakistan for the first time did not play in the Hockey World Cup, which ended last Sunday with the Australians winning their third world cup title beating Netherlands 6-1 in The Hague, the Dutch home ground. The only person I could recognise among the Aussies was coach Ric Charlseworth, the star hockey player in the team which won the country's first world cup in 1986.
That tells you how cut off we are from hockey today. In the 1980s, not just diehard hockey fans but even old women could tell who were the great players in the Pakistani, as well as the teams of other countries playing in international tournaments such as the Hockey World Cup and Champions Trophy. Today I cannot even tell who is who in Pakistan's hockey scenario. Again, the only people I do recognise are the stars of the glorious 1980s, who now pose as trainers, coaches, big shots in the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF), who presided in the demise of Pakistan hockey. The tragedy is they do not see themselves as the murderers of the national game.
The nation's focus is cricket, cricket and only cricket. Even other sports which were once the glory of Pakistan, Football and Squash are out of the limelight. Pakistan Football suffered when East Pakistan became Bangladesh, thus effectively separating players, who mostly hailed from Lyari, from the massive enthusiastic support of spectators who belonged to the Eastern wing of the country.
However, enthusiasm for football has not died in the country, especially in Karachi, proved by the bronze medal performance of street children in Brazil a month or so ago.
For the current FIFA World Cup enthusiasm is undiminished and nearly everyone can tell who are the stars in every participating team. Squash, however only interested us in the days of Jahangir Khan.
Our hockey pundits make several excuses for the demise of the game, but lack of intelligence to see why they failed to sustain hockey supremacy. Among pet excuses are: partisanship or blind bias to include players from the Punjab what ever their merit in the game; the introduction of Astroturf which did not favour eastern style hockey; bickering in the PHF, and jockeying for posts in the PHF for joy trips; poor coaching; youth interest in cricket instead of hockey; and the favourite excuse, that the International Hockey Federation (FIH) continuously change rules so that they favoured European style hockey at the expense of Asian style. They are not averse to mud-slinging at each other either, playing the blame-game.
The growth and strength in any sport needs two things: talent and mass support or enthusiasm. Our hockey promoters (its actually laughable to call them promoters) did nothing to develop talent at the grass root nor organised games informal and tournaments to generate spectator support.
This was the responsibility of every single Olympian, World Cupper and Champions Trophy player who ever stood on the victory stand. They took the medals and cups and used them to promote themselves.
Like parasites they have sucked the lifeblood of Pakistan hockey. Did they think only choosing the national team and training it would sustain hockey? If they did even this, it was for what the job would yield in financial benefit for themselves. As winners they got good jobs, plots, and money gifts. They did not give anything back to the game. Not even their sons, who were never encouraged to play. I doubt if their sons even know what was the weight to their father's hockey stick. The recently set up hockey camps in schools in Karachi and Lahore are nothing more than self-promoting gimmicks.
Look at some of their excuses. Pakistan hockey was great in the 1980s and 90s despite partisanship. Most of the European teams played for field goals in the recent Hockey World Cup.
They did not aim to manufacture penalty corners. Watching Netherlands and Germany on field one could help admiring their stick work their speed and strategy which were once the hallmark of Pakistan players.
The rules of the FIH has produced better and better hockey, it does not favour any particular style. Every single team in the World Cup whether they were winners or losers was a team to admire.
The game is not dead except in Pakistan. One of the reasons of course is lack of public support. This is generated by promotion of the game in frequent matches at all levels, the street, the muhallah, the stadium. It is promoted by the sport being part of the school and college curriculum.
And, importantly, is the role of the press and television. Most Pakistanis were not even aware there was a Hockey World Cup on. In fact there were three world cups going on simultaneously: women and men's hockey and football. The build up for the FIFA World Cup, the publicity even in our press and television, blinded us to the hockey affairs. The stadium in the The Hague was full of spectators no matter who was playing. That is how it used to be when we watched World Cup or other tournaments in the 1980s and 90s. We did not watch only Pakistan matches.
So is it surprising that a Hockey enthusiasts like yours truly can only recognise Ric Charlseworth from Australia?
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