The year 2016 will go into the annals of the game as a disgraceful year as far as Pakistan hockey is concerned with the Greenshirts’ absence from two prestigious events — the Champions Trophy and the Rio Olympics.

After securing silver medal in the last edition held at the Bhubaneswar, India, in 2014, the three-time former Olympic champions will miss the Champions Trophy being held at London’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park from June 10 to 17.

According to the International Hockey Federation (FIH), the six nations that will vie for honours include South Korea, India, Great Britain, Germany, Belgium and Australia.

Pakistan is not in the top fray, placed 10th in the rankings.

This, however, is not the first time Pakistan will miss out on the Champions Trophy since its inception at Lahore in 1978.

They have previously failed to make it at Amstelveen in 2000, at Rotterdam in 2008, at Melbourne in 2009 and at Monchengladbach in 2010 due to non-qualification.

Considered as the toughest event of the FIH calendar, the Champions Trophy is very dear to Pakistan as the idea was conceived by it during the golden era of retired Air Marshal Nur Khan and retired Brig M. H. Atif.

Pakistan have won the trophy thrice since.

They had shown signs of improvement under manager Shahnaz Shaikh which is evident from the fact that it has come close to regaining the title in the last edition on the Indian soil after skipping three successive events between 2008-2010 but unfortunately they had to be content with silver, losing the final 0-2 to Germany.

Contrary to Champions Trophy, it will be first time ever that Pakistan will be not amongst the participants at the Olympic Games since their debut at the London Games in 1948 — the reason being their failure to qualify for Rio.

The Azlan Shah hockey tournament that commemorates its silver jubilee at Ipoh, Malaysia, next month will be the first test of senior outfit since the change of guards at the helm of Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) six months back.

Juniors and Whites have since produced fruitful results at the eighth junior Asia Cup held in the Malaysian city of Kuantan and SAF Games that took place at Guwahati, India, respectively.

India defeated Pakistan by tennis score of 6-2 in the final to win the junior Asia Cup. But the consolation was that Pakistan qualified for the 2016 junior World Cup slated in India from Dec 1 to 11.

As far as SAF Games are concerned, Pakistan Whites beat India by solitary goal on their soil in the final to return with flying colours — the gold providing the silver-lining in an otherwise lacklustre performance by Pakistani athletes.

The Pakistani fans keep their fingers crossed with a hope that the Greenshirts will deliver the goods at the Ipoh event and form a winning combination for the future assignments.

Published in Dawn, March 14th, 2016