Change of guard in the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) alone will not solve the ongoing crisis confronting the game and it is imperative to revamp the system for Pakistan to make a comeback into the leading hockey playing nations.

The successor of Akhtar Rasool and Co will have no magic wand to remove the flaws with the players overnight. Corrective measures need to be enforced forthwith for a better result tomorrow.

A lot has been said and written over Pakistan’s failure to qualify for the 2016 Rio Olympics with just about everyone putting the entire blame on the PHF, the team management and the players without looking into the causes of the debacle.

It is the government, the IPC and the PSB that are to be blamed most for the entire episode as they never really gave a fair deal to the national game. Instead, the govts kept appointing hand-picked men as heads of PHF and removed them if the team fared badly, only to replace them with more such favourites.

Positive signals were quite visible when the same team started producing results and finished on the victory podium twice by securing silver medals in succession at the Champions Trophy and the Asian Games. That was the time when the players needed a pat on their back which was unfortunately not done by those who matter in the Federal Capital.

A result-oriented system had worked effectively for decades during the golden era of Pakistan sports and the nation has become used to fine victories by the national team every now and then. But the early signs of decline started to show when the greenshirts faltered at the Willesden World Cup in 1986 when they finished 11th among 12 nations, just ahead of India.

A probe committee was also formed then and had invited experts and sports journalists including this correspondent to ascertain the causes of finishing an all-time low.

But today, we have done away with the system. The sports departments in financial institutions as well as in other organisations were closed down long ago while an embargo has been clamped in PIA and Customs on hiring of players.

The stadia have been encroached and the healthy trend of giving admission on sports basis in the city colleges is a now a thing of the past.

In a bleak scenario like the one prevailing today and in view of the high cost of living, why would a youth pick up hockey or any other sports for that matter, with cricket perhaps being an exception. Majority of the players come from the poor families and find it difficult to make ends meet. They need some stipend for transportation to travel to the grounds daily for practice besides maintaining nutrition levels for a fair output.

It is pertinent to mention that at least 10 or 11 players of the Pakistan hockey team that won the gold medal at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics were unearthed during the PIA Colts scheme. It was the brain-child of PHF’s the then director sports, late Brig M.H. Atif, who inducted the players in 1980.

Former Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali, who is also a former PHF president, ordered hiring of sportsmen in various departments and a notification was also issued but could not see the light of the day.

Taking the Antwerp debacle as an eye-opener, the government should immediately take corrective measures including merging the ministries of sports and education.

Secondly, the government should give the responsibility of running hockey affairs to Customs (preventive) under the Central Board of Revenue (CBR) which, if given the task, can generate substantial funds by imposing levy on all consignments. If these steps are taken forthwith, it will undoubtedly yield positive results after a few years.

Published in Dawn, July 16th, 2015

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