With just days left for the Sultan Azlan Shah Hockey Cup in Malaysia, Pakistan hockey was in the throes of its worst administrative crisis.

Two national federations were active. If the Tariq Bugti-led Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) was occupying the offices in the PHF headquarters in Lahore, Haider Hussain, the secretary of the Karachi-based PHF with Shehla Raza as the president, was carrying out the official correspondence with Fédération Internationale de Hockey (FIH), the international overseer of the game and the organisers of the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup.

Uncertainty about Pakistan’s participation prevailed. Both factions were conducting separate training camps in Islamabad and Karachi. The possibility of two teams reaching Malaysia wasn’t ruled out. This could have led to serious ramifications — such as the FIH banning Pakistan from international competitions.

With time running out, the prime minister, the ex officio patron-in-chief of the PHF, sprang into action. A week before the start of the tournament, Rana Mashhood Ahmad Khan, adviser to the PM on Youth Affairs, called both the PHF presidents for their versions.

Mashhood said that the government would decide on the federation’s fate after consultation with the Pakistan Olympic Association (POA) and FIH. The immediate concern was Pakistan’s participation in the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup.

The Pakistan hockey team surprised everyone by finishing second at the Sultan Azlan Shah Hockey Cup in Malaysia recently. Does that mean another golden era of hockey is round the corner?

Mashhood empowered the Dutch coach Roelant Oltmans to select the final team for the Malaysian event, in coordination with the Director General of the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) and a representative of POA, following two-day trials in Islamabad.

Players from both camps appeared in the trials and the team was selected. But with all the chaos, even the most optimistic of fans gave Pakistan little chance of even a respectable performance.

The opening match was against the hosts and defending champions Malaysia. After three quarters, Pakistan trailed 1-3. Pakistan equalised, trailed 3-4 and won 5-4, scoring goals in the 58th and 59th minutes. Even Pakistan’s coach Oltmans was taken aback.

“It is never easy to play a top-level team just hours after a long trip, where the boys hardly slept the whole night,” he said.

Next, Pakistan trounced South Korea 4-0. The Korean coach reacted by saying that they could not cope with the Green Shirts’ speed. Remember, South Korea’s biggest strength has always been their speed.

In the third match, Pakistan drew with Japan 1-1, equalising in the last quarter.

The match against Canada, again saw Pakistan going into arrears. Canada led 2-0. The Green Shirts recovered magnificently then, scoring five goals. The North Americans still managed to give them a scare, making it 4-5 with 10 minutes left. But Pakistan held on.

With a place in the final assured, Pakistan drew the last league tie against New Zealand, 1-1.

The final between Pakistan and Japan was a thriller. Japan led 1-0 after an evenly fought first half. Pakistan were simply unstoppable in the next 15 minutes. They scored two beautiful field goals in their best quarter during the tourney.

Inexplicably, the dominance wasn’t sustained in the last quarter, allowing Japan to make it 2-2. The eventual penalty shoot-out, surprisingly, turned out to be one-sided. It seemed Pakistan were without practice. Pakistan’s goalkeeper was mesmerised by the Japanese, while the Pakistani attackers looked blank.

The shoot-out aside, the boys performed well in all departments. They showed resilience in five of the six matches, when they came from behind. They showed speed. They showed physical fitness, by scoring many times in the final moments. In fact, their all-round performance, including field goals and penalty corner goals, was fine and they were not entirely dependent on one penalty corner expert: both Sufyan and Abubakr scored four goals each.

The players are full of praise for coach Oltmans. He joined the camp only a few days before the start of the tournament, but he has had earlier stints with the Pakistan team, including during the 2023 Junior World Cup. Seven players from that junior side are now part of the senior squad.

Pakistan’s second position at Azlan Shah has been widely celebrated. The PM, the army chief and provincial chief ministers have all awarded cash prizes to the players, and hockey lovers have been happy to see all this. But the fallacy that another golden era is round the corner has reared its head again.

It’s important to put things in perspective.

Pakistan reached the final of Azlan Shah after 13 years. The tournament is an invitational, non-title event, hosted by Malaysia since 1983. Three to four of the world’s top nine sides usually participate in it as well as lower-ranked teams. It is regarded as a second-tier event.

Then there is the issue of finances, faced by the PHF, and consequently, the players. The players were amply rewarded after the Azlan Shah heroics and the PM has also released Rs59 million for the team’s preparatory camp for the Nations Cup in Holland. He has also promised jobs for national team players.

But there have been directives by the highest executives of the country in the past also to reinstate departmental teams, thus providing jobs to the players, but they were never implemented. IMF-influenced austerity policies regarding the public sector may be a hindrance this time as well.

What then is the solution? The PHF should be transformed into a self-reliant body. Presently, it begs for funding from the government. A franchise-based league on the pattern of cricket’s Pakistan Super League could be the answer. Income generated from there would help the PHF become a self-reliant body, with players getting lucrative contracts with the franchises. A strong domestic structure would emerge and the general public’s interest in hockey would be enhanced.

Perhaps some would say the corporate sector is not interested in extending sponsorship to any sport except for cricket. Evidence indicates the opposite. Recently, the Central Asian Volleyball Championship was held in Islamabad. The Pakistan Volleyball Federation (PVF) roped in at least eight sponsors. This included title sponsors, logos on players’ shirts, and advertisements in the arena. Plans for a Pro Volleyball League featuring foreign players early next year have also been almost finalised.

Hockey administration does require some changes, however, for such plans to be put in place. The president of the PVF, Chaudhry Yaqoob, is well respected for his integrity, commitment to the cause of volleyball and to enterprise. The same can’t be said about the PHF at the moment.

Tariq Bugti and Rana Mujahid went to Malaysia with the Pakistan team as the president and the secretary of the PHF, respectively, and have also been present in all the functions felicitating the Pakistan team. But soon after assuming the charge of the PHF president, Tariq Bugti had suspended Rana Mujahid.

On top of it, in an official letter sent to the Inter-Provincial Coordination ministry, Bugti had recommended putting the names of all PHF secretaries and presidents who had worked from 2008 to 2022, on the Exit Control List. Rana Mujahid was one of them. Now, Rana Mujahid is working as Tariq Bugti’s No 2 in the PHF.

In such a scenario, the private sector would be wary of sponsoring hockey. The government must act immediately and appoint suitable persons for the top two slots of the PHF, people who are honest, competent and visionaries.

The only way forward for Pakistan hockey may be a well-organised, franchise-based league, but that will require the right people to implement it.

The writer is a freelance sports journalist based in Lahore.
X: @IjazChaudhry1 Email: ijaz62@hotmail.com

Published in Dawn, EOS, June 2nd, 2024