KARACHI: Former Olympian and International Hockey Federation (FIH) Master Trainer and Educator Tahir Zaman urged the Sindh government to set up a Centre of Excellence for grooming players and producing quality coaches to help Pakistan regain its lost glory in the sport.

“It is need of the hour to create a centre for youth to polish their skills in line with the latest technology,” Tahir said while speaking during the certificate distribution ceremony of a three-day coaches workshop at the Karachi Hockey Association (KHA) ground the other day.

He said the process should continue long enough to achieve desired results in the next few years.

The 52-year old former inside right said the provincial government should collaborate with the education department to identify under-14 talent and offer them incentives in cash and kind besides sending the best players abroad for exposure.

“Hockey has completely changed and the direction of coaching also needs to be revised from boring camps and made attractive for a young person to switch from mobile phone to hockey,” Tahir, who has represented Pakistan in three Olympics, as many World Cups and two Asian Games told Dawn.

A native of Gojra, Tahir attributed the decline of Pakistan’s golden era to the authorities to lack of focus towards coaches education.

Tahir, who hanged his boots after 1998 World Cup, joined the elite FIH panel as trainer and educator and later served the national senior and junior hockey teams as head coach, assistant coach and consultant on different occasions in the past besides serving many foreign teams.

With 225 international matches under his belt and 136 goals to his credit, Tahir pointed out that a good teacher produces good students.

He applauded the KHA for conducting the coaches workshop. The keynote speaker dwelled on variety of subjects including modern terminology, skill development, planning and strategising with the help of videos and practical demonstration and later took questions. Around 110 participants including women attended the workshop.

Secretary Sports Sindh Akhtar Inayat Bhurgari was also in attendance.

Published in Dawn, March 9th, 2022