The year 2016 was the year of the Olympic Games with the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro hosting the grand extravaganza. For Pakistan, though, among other setbacks, it witnessed the ignominy of the national hockey team failing to make the Games for the first time ever, while there were only a few moments to cherish for them.

The first setback came in shape of the Pakistan hockey team’s failure to compete at the London Champions Trophy in June due to financial constraints despite being given a wildcard by the FIH.

And the last big jolt of the year came when the International Hockey Federation (FIH), allegedly in connivance with the Indian Hockey Federation (IHF), deprived Pakistan from competing at the Lucknow Junior World Cup in December, drafting in Malaysia as replacement at the eleventh hour.

It is pertinent to mention that both the FIH and the IHF are headed by the same man, India’s Narinder Dhruv Batra.

Instead of issuing visas to Pakistan team, India played dirty with the Greenshirts by scheming to keep them away from the quadrennial event. It was a great opportunity to bridge the gap between the two nations through sports, but India unfortunately chose not to make any such effort.

The PHF officially blamed Pakistan’s non-participation in the Junior World Cup to FIH’s inability to ensure timely visas.

At the outset, however, Pakistan had a wonderful start to the year when they beat India at their own turf by 2-1 in the league clash and finally 1-0 the final to win the South Asian Games hockey title for the third time in-a-row. Awais-ur-Rehman scored the winning goal for the greenshirts.

On return, the victorious team led by Olympian Irfan, called on Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in Islamabad who rewarded the team by dishing out Rs 500,000 for every member besides a pat on their backs. It may be mentioned here that since that ghastly terrorist attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team at Lahore on March 3, 2009, Pakistan has already paid a heavy price with none of the prominent nations sending their sports outfits here.

In this scenario, India is further attempting to isolate Pakistan by rubbing salt into the wounds, not wasting a single opportunity to malign Pakistan at any forum. But India must realise that if Pakistan had not featured in the SA Games at Shillong and Guwahati, the entire event would have been a wasted exercise.

In their first international assignment after the reappointment, manager Hanif Khan and coach K. M. Junaid failed to carry the national team to podium in the 25th Sultan Azlan Shah Cup held at Ipoh from April 6 to 16. The greenshirts could only win three games — two against lowly-rated Canada and one against Japan to finish a poor fifth in the seven-nation contest.

They lost to New Zealand 3-5, Australia 0-4, India 1-5 and Malaysia 0-1. Australia, meanwhile, lifted the cup after thrashing India 4-0 in final.

In April, the FIH further annoyed the followers of the game in Pakistan by announcing to do away with the Champions Trophy after 2018 and replace it with World Global League.

Launched in 1978 at Lahore, the Champions Trophy which is regarded as the toughest event of the FIH calendar, will complete four decades next year.

Pakistan managed to seize a silver in the men’s Asian Champions Trophy held at Kuantan from Oct 20 to 30 after it lost to India in the final.

At home, the Oman hockey team was the only foreign team to visit the country and played four games in Sept.

Former PHF president Mir Zafarullah Jamali, while criticising PHF on the floor of national assembly, said the office-bearers have ruined the game and added that action be taken against the IPC minister for his silence. The government then quickly announced to conduct special audit of the PHF for 2014-15.

Domestic:

PIA defeated Wapda 5-4 on shootout sudden death to retain national title. The two teams were tied two-all in regulation time.

Wapda avenged their defeat when they thumped PIA 4-2 in the final to win the Inaugural nine-a-side floodlit hockey tournament at the Abdul Sattar Hockey Stadium on Aug 14. The final was followed by motorbike, dog show at the new blue and pink turf in presence of several present and past stalwarts of the game that sparked criticism.

During the same month, Dr Syed Junaid Ali Shah was elected president of the Karachi Hockey Association (KHA) while on Oct 13, former inter national Haider Hussain was voted as KHA secretary.

Juniors:

Pakistan under-21 team visited Europe and featured in a four-nation invitational tournament held in Hannover, Germany from July 21 to 24.

Besides Pakistan other three teams were Holland, Belgium and the hosts.

Pakistan under-21 finished runners-up in the Sultan of Johar Cup held at Johor Bahru, Malaysia, from Oct 31 to Nov 6.

In the run up to the final, Pakistan defeated New Zealand 5-2, held England to a two-all draw, swept aside Malaysia 4-1, outplayed by Australia 1-8 and was home 2-1 over Japan. Australia carved out 3-1 victory over Pakistan to win the title.

Punjab ‘Blues’ won the national under-18 title by getting the better of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa ‘Colours’ 3-1 in the final of the inaugural event at Naseer Bunda stadium.

Pakistan had to be content with third place in the Junior Asia Cup held at Dhaka from Sept 24 to 30. Pakistan suffered a 1-3 loss at the hands of India in the semi-finals. Final positions were; 1-India, 2-Bangladesh, 3-Pakistan, 4-Chinese Taipei, 5-China, 6-Oman, 7-Hong Kong.

Women’s:

Meanwhile, Pakistan women’s hockey team made history by making it to the semi-finals of the fourth Asian women’s AHF Cup held at Bangkok from Oct 1 to 9 where it lost 1-5 to hosts Thailand.

In the playoff for 3rd-4th positions, Pakistan suffered 1-4 loss at the hands of Chinese Taipei to finish fifth in the nine-team event.

The final positions were 1-Thailand, 2-Singapore, 3-Chinese Taipei, 4-Pakistan, 5-Hong Kong, 6-Sri Lanka, 7-Uzbekistan, 8-Cambodia and 9-Indonesia.

Former Olympians Saeed Khan and Usman accompanied the team as manager and coach respectively.

Earlier, Wapda trounced Railways 3-1 to retain the title in the 29th national women’s hockey championship in Aug.

Published in Dawn January 17th, 2017