ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) has decided to pay special attention to club hockey in order to bring improvement in the declining standards of the national game.

Pakistan, which ruled hockey world for decades by winning four World Cups and several other titles, has struggled to match the leading teams of the world during the last two decades.

Many former Olympians and the game’s critics believe that lack of focus from successive PHF managements to streamline club and school hockey has led to little or no back-up talent emerging from the country that has eventually led to poor performances in international events by the greenshirts.

In 2016, Pakistan hockey touched its lowest ebb when its team failed to qualify for the Rio Olympics.

The PHF has finally woken up to reality and has now decided to organise a competitive inter-club event at the district level from Oct 24.

“We are going to improve hockey at the grass-roots level which will Inshallah result in significant improvement in the performance of our national team in the years to come,” said PHF secretary Shahbaz Senior on Friday.

“Without reviving club and school level hockey we can’t move forward.”

He said that the PHF has devised a comprehensive plan ‘Vision 2020’ to revive hockey in the country.

“This year, we will organise a number of inter-club tournaments at the district level and then at the inter-division level,” he disclosed.

He added that clubs are the key in providing fresh talent and are the basic unit of the edifice of the national game.

“Besides focusing on the grass-roots level, I’m also working to set up an excellence academy to groom our players for properly understanding new rules, etc,” he said.

Meanwhile, a press release issued by the PHF on Friday said: “During the past, the domestic club scene was very active and competitive.

“The clubs played the role of a nursery in producing quality players and there was no shortage of talent available to the national sides.

“For reviving old club culture, the PHF is going to hold inter-club competitions at all levels and they will be a permanent fixture of the PHF’s annual calendar.

“The inter-club district hockey championships will be followed by the inter-club divisional level events and then the provincial.

“It would culminate at the national level where the top clubs emerging from the provincial competitions would participate for the title of the National Club Champions, who would also be sent to competitions outside Pakistan.”

According to the press release, PHF Director Development and Domestic, Naveed Alam, will be the chief coordinator and would monitor the events.

In this regard, the provincial hockey associations have been told to organise the preliminary rounds of the inter-club championship at the district and divisional level in their respective provinces as per the following schedule:

Inter-club at district level — Oct 24-31; inter-club at divisional level - Nov 3-10; inter-club at provincial level — Nov 14-21, inter-club at national level — Nov 24- Dec 2.

Format of national level shall be as follows: Top four clubs from Punjab, top three clubs each from Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, top two clubs from Balochistan and one each from Islamabad, AJK, Fata and Gilgit Baltistan.

Published in Dawn September 24th, 2016