“I REMEMBER when we beat Pakistan here. The crowd was so angry that they threw oranges at us,” the veteran Dutch hockey penalty corner specialist Paul Litjens says while sharing a fond memory about the Abdul Sattar Edhi Hockey Stadium, formerly the Hockey Club of Pakistan. “The oranges went nicely with our kit shirts,” he laughs.

Litjens is visiting Pakistan along with over 20 other old and new international hockey stars from the Netherlands, Germany, Australia, Spain and Argentina for the Hall of Fame and World XI Tour for which the younger players will play two hockey matches against the Pakistan XI side in Karachi (Jan 19) and Lahore (Jan 21) while the veterans, including former legends such as Litjens, Rob Lathouwers (Holland), Floris Jan Bovelander (Holland), Christian Blunck (Germany), Juan Escarre (Spain) and Don Prior (Australia), will be honoured and included in the Hall of Fame along with as many Pakistani greats, namely, Islahuddin Siddiqui, Hasan Sardar, Shahbaz Ahmed senior, Shahnaz Sheikh, Akhtar Rasool and Samiullah.

The international stars say they feel completely at home in Karachi, especially the ground. All of them mentioned the huge crowds they had witnessed here.

The ground sprinklers installed to keep the new blue artificial desso turf moist go off just then. “I have a very nice picture of myself under the water spray of the sprinklers here,” says Floris Jan Bovelander, another penalty corner specialist from the Netherlands. “It was the Champions Trophy and we had lost to Pakistan. I was walking back down the ground towards the dressing room when the sprinklers here came on, and someone took my picture. I still have that picture. I like it very much,” he says.

“There would be a very good crowd here in those days. I don’t recall an empty place in the stands. It used to be completely packed. It has been some 20 years since then. The ground seems the same, except for the blue turf, of course, as it was green back then. It is an old stadium with lots of history. Pakistan hockey has great history, too,” he adds.

Christian Blunck of Germany, too, shares some memories of winning against Pakistan in 1992 at the ground. “That was my first time in Karachi. The angry crowd threw whatever they had in their hands at us but we didn’t mind. We understood that they were disappointed,” he says. “I also remember riding a horse at the Karachi beach,” he adds.

An international umpire of 158 matches, Rob Lathouwers also shares his memory of the stadium with Dawn. “It was in 1985 or ’86 when I was umpiring a match between Pakistan and India here,” he says before giving the result of that encounter. India won 3-2.

“I remember a very unhappy crowd that was absolutely furious. They had to get the Indian team out of there real quick. They also had to move out the Pakistan team before the crowd got to them, they were so mad. But they had no issues with us umpires. We were safe,” he smiles.

Another international umpire, Don Prior of Australia says this is his fourth visit to the city. “I also umpired a match played between Pakistan and India here. Luckily, for me and you, Pakistan was the victor,” he smiles.

“The crowd was incredible. I have never seen such a big crowd, not even in other countries. I always wanted to come back here,” he says.

“I also umpired that 1994 Hockey World Cup in Sydney, which Pakistan won by beating the Netherlands,” he says. “Most of the spectators there were also from Pakistan. It was the same during the Atlanta Olympics in 1996 when the most people coming to watch the field hockey matches were either Pakistanis or Indians,” he says. “So there is an interest for hockey. There are people who still love the game here. They just need to watch exciting matches again to come out and watch again,” he says.

When asked to be prepared not to find as big a crowd here on Friday, he says, and asks, “Yes, Pakistan hockey. What happened to it?”

In April of 2008, the stadium with which so many people associate the glory days of Pakistan hockey was stripped of its international status by the FIH, the world body of hockey, as it no longer boasted a practice pitch and a parking lot which happen to be standard FIH requirements for a ground for international matches. (The stadium originally did have a parking lot. But later on, the military built some apartment buildings there.)

However, not having a practice pitch and a parking lot is the least of its problems today. The two stands facing each other, and situated behind the goalposts, in the formerly 30,000 capacity ground are said to be in danger of collapsing anytime; therefore no one is allowed to sit there. Except for the blue turf, the stadium itself is in a dilapidated condition despite the annual Rs100 million grant the Pakistan Hockey Federation gets for it from the Sindh government to revive field hockey in the province.

Published in Dawn, January 19th, 2018