After its fourth successive failure, Pakistan hockey team , trained  by internationally renowned Dutch coach, Michel van den Heuvel, last week gave an amazing performance to become 16th Asian Games champions in Guangzhou, China, and earned a place in the 2012 London Olympics. Indeed a remarkable feat hailed by the nation. The 10-nation Asian Games hockey assumed extraordinary importance as the winners earned a direct place in the London Olympics even though many hockey experts did not consider the seven-time gold medalists as strong contenders for recapturing the title.

Defending champions South Korea and India termed joint favourites with the hope that Pakistan would be on the victory stand which meant getting bronze medals.

Four years ago in Doha Asian games Pakistan finished third for a bronze medal. Their contention was that since Pakistan had already suffered three successive defeats against India, to beat them in the Asian Games and overcome the South Korean challenge seemed a testing task.

Pakistan again lost to India, 2-3, in a hard-fought encounter to finish behind India in the five-team Group B, having registered  comfortable victories against Hong Kong (12-0),  Japan (8-2) and Bangladesh (6-1).

Both India and Pakistan entered the semi-finals and were joined by Malaysia and title holders South Korea, four-time champions, with an eye to perform a hat-trick of victories after clinching the 2002 and 2006 Asian gold.

However, Pakistan brought about the biggest distress of the tournament when it reached the final with a 4-3 triumph over defending champions South Korea in the penalty strokes shootout after 1-1 during the regulation time. India also suffered the biggest humiliation by losing to Malaysia, who for the first time in the 52-year hockey history of the Asian Games, qualified for the final. It was a remarkable performance by Malaysia. Soon both the joint title favourites, South Korea and India, were out of the title race.

Pakistan took control of the game and enjoyed an upper hand against Malaysia in the title battle with penalty corner expert  Sohail Abbas who converted the first penalty corner to give the green shirts a well deserving lead, and attacker Rehan Butt consolidated the lead. Malaysia fought with renewed determination (0-2) but failed to get the silver.

Recalled penalty corner expert Sohail Abbas, the world record holder for the highest number of 317 goals so far, has not been given the honour of leading the team as players junior to him were considered for captaincy. This is injustice by those who take decisions for team captaincy. Sohail again turned out to be the highest scorer with seven goals at Guangzhou Games followed by Imran with five as Pakistan netted a total of 31 goals and conceded seven.

Let the PHF chief and his close associates ensure fairness and justice by appointing Sohail Abbas as captain of the team. After successive failures, Pakistan, under the captaincy of fullback Zeeshan, regained the Asian Games gold and a leadership change is the need of the hour.

Pakistan raised its tally to a record eight wins after a lapse of two decades, indicating perhaps the decline of standards at the Asia level.

The Asian Games is not a major international tournament but a regional event like European championships. The world's leading teams (except Australia who won the New Delhi World Cup in February-March this year), are from Europe as Germany was placed second, The Netherlands (3), England (4) and Spain (5). Pakistan gave the worst ever performance by finishing at the bottom of the 12-nation tournament.

Islamabad took serious note of Pakistan's poor show in New Delhi and the Pakistan Hockey Federation, headed by former Olympian full-back, Qasim Zia. Services of the Dutch coach Michel van den Heuvel were acquired five months ago in June despite bitter criticism by a group of former Olympian coaches for hiring a foreign coach.

The Guangzhou victory was lauded in the country as it brought a new confidence to the team with the hope of better performance in the major international tournaments, such as 2012 London Olympics, the World Cup, the Champions Trophy as well as other international tournaments.

There is still a long way to regain our lost glory in  international hockey but den Heuvel deserves full credit for expert handling with great emphasis on top physical fitness which helped the Pakistan team to regain the Asian gold after having  its last victory in the 1990 Asian games.

Surprisingly enough the Dutch coach had to sit away from team seating area from where he issued instructions to the team. He should have been in the team seating area as he is the chief coach and responsible for the team's success and failure. The team efforts were praised by a number of former Olympians as well as the federation officials for winning the Asian gold but den Heuvel deserves kudos for professional commitment.

According to media reports, the Dutch coach, who is on contract till the 2012 London Olympics, is having second thoughts about continuing his coaching assignment as his family is concerned about his safety. One does not know whether the PHF is aware about his family's concerns. However, the possibility cannot be ruled out that the Dutch coach might not have liked the way he was treated in Asian Games and could well be his reason for quitting his assignment.