The team made its own statement by ending up at an all-time pathetic eighth spot at the Olympics, something even the worst of hockey critics stopped short of predicting.

The beginning to the Olympic campaign said it all. Pakistan lost the opener 4-2 to Great Britain, a rival against whom we have a decent record in the Games. The next match with Canada was won 3-1 but the one that followed with Australia was lost 1-3.

The last pool match with the Netherlands was no different. It ended our dream of reaching the podium as the Dutch outplayed Pakistan 4-2.

The national squad experienced new lows and failed to finish even in the top six that could have fetched them a slot in the 2009 Champions Trophy. The last straw was the defeat in the 7-8 placement match which New Zealand won 4-2.

As a consequence, many heads rolled within the PHF. The first ones to go were Khwaja Zakauddin and Naveed Alam, followed by Senior Vice-President Khalid Mahmood. Then the selectors quit their posts. Even the marketing and media directors resigned but the ringmaster Jamali apologised for the debacle and stayed on. It was not until a batch of former Olympians and the ladies of the Women’s Wing launched a fierce campaign against him that Jamali finally called it a day, on October 13.

The three-day Hamburg Masters that followed a couple of months after the Olympics saw Pakistan getting a new captain — Shakeel Abbasi. Several players from the Beijing squad were rested in favour of young boys from the junior squad including Mohammad Atiq. The three matches played by Pakistan in the single-league event, played from October 3 to 5 resulted in one win (against Belgium), one draw (against Malaysia) and one loss (against Olympic-champions Germany).

Meanwhile, Bajwa unveiled his four-year mega plan for the uplift of Pakistan hockey. He announced the setting up of grooming centres and academies, spoke of involving school and clubs in a proper league system, of junior tournaments, training of coaches and umpires while promising to take Pakistan hockey from strength to strength.

On October 15, former Olympian Qasim Zia took over as the 23rd PHF president. At the PHF Congress meeting, five days later, Qasim Zia announced the raising of the federation’s annual budget to Rs376 million from the previous Rs140 million.

Further changes included hockey legend Hasan Sardar taking over as chief selector with Farhat Khan, Rana Mujahid, Mohammad Shafique and Khalid Bashir serving as the members of the selection committee. The ailing Brig Manzoor Hussain Atif was named PHF advisor.

Qamar Ibrahim was named chief coach of the junior team with Danish Kaleem and Ahmed Alam as his assistants. But the national team’s management was announced much later, on Nov 14. Olympian Ayaz Mahmood was appointed chief coach with Mohammad Shahbaz Jr and Kamran Ashraf as coaches. In December, the PHF also hired a Dutch hockey consultant Wouter Tazelaar for two years to supervise work at the hockey academies.

On Qasim Zia’s request, Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani issued a directive to the departments to revive their sports activities. Playing in foreign leagues was also allowed as long as national duty was given priority.

With not much left in the national team’s schedule other than playing qualifiers, PHF’s focus turned to the juniors. Starting the year by finishing fifth in the eight-nation junior tournament in Malaysia, they had gone on to a good tour of South Africa where they even played four matches with their national team. Taking bronze in the 6th Men’s Junior Asia Cup in July, they also qualified for the Junior World Cup in June 2009.

In order to provide them with much practice before the big event, PHF invited the Indian junior team for a five-Test match home series. However, the tour was cancelled at the eleventh hour — on the eve of the first Test — due to India’s ‘unknown’ security concerns.

PHF then announced its willingness to play on neutral venues in order to provide the boys with much-needed practice.

At the International Hockey Federation (FIH) Congress in Los Angeles in November, Qasim Zia and Bajwa had fruitful discussions with their Indian counterparts about reviving the Pakistan-India hockey series but things went from bad to worse after the Mumbai terror attacks when the governments of both countries disallowed teams from playing each other.

In December, after attending the Asian Hockey Federation (AHF) meeting in Malaysia, the federation’s top brass announced starting an Asian Champions Trophy and an eight-nation Shaheed Benazir Bhutto tournament in 2009.

The year’s other highs and lows included Pakistan’s 28-year-old forward Rehan Butt’s being nominated in the World All-Star hockey team by the (FIH), followed by his being declared ‘Best Asian Player’ by the AHF. On December 8, PHF lost its valuable advisor and legendary player-official, Brig Manzoor Hussain Atif. The former PHF Secretary and team captain was paid a befitting tribute by the federation which named a tournament and an academy after him.

Concluded