LAHORE A group of former hockey Olympians led by former hockey great Shahbaz Senior said that the drastic measures being taken by the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) for the revival of the game here will yield productive results in three to four years with the regional academies becoming capable of producing junior players.
Those who joined Shahbaz to address the media at a news conference here on Tuesday on the sidelines of the ongoing NBP Gold Cup Hockey Tournament included former Olympians Shahid Ali Khan, Saleem Sherwani, Khawaja Mohammad Junaid, Ahmed Alam, Shahbaz Junior, Shafqat Malik, Kamran Akmal, Nadeem ND, Mohammad Akhlaq, Saeed Anjum and international Mohammad Shafiq.
Shahbaz Sr was of the view that the step of establishing hockey academies across the country will help groom players under the supervision of a foreign hockey expert to secure a better tomorrow for hockey in Pakistan.
'Hockey is struggling in Pakistan at the moment because the passion to play the game amongst our youth is getting lesser and lesser by the day. There is a dire need to motivate them to play hockey and the regional academies can help in bringing back our youth to the national sport as they offer all the modern facilities required to learn hockey and that too under one roof,' he said.
Saying that, Shahbaz Senior also advised the PHF to cut the strength of their existing 11 academies down to six or seven in order to ensure quality rather going for quantity.
'The federation should start with less hockey institutions and when they are well-established, more can be formed gradually in order to meet the growing challenges of the game,' he said while adding 'In my opinion three to four years' solid efforts may be needed to get our past glory back.'
The academies, according to Shahbaz Senior, teach modern-day hockey to the young players, the way it is being taught in Europe. Restricting young Pakistani players to that style of hockey is the only way to correct Pakistan hockey and help it to cope with the might of the top hockey teams of the world.
'Gone are the days when reliance on speed, skill or solo performances from individual players could lead a side to glory. Hockey now is a complete science in which the performance of a team revolves around all the playing members and Pakistani players must opt to this new culture to be at par with progressing hockey nations,' he said.
Meanwhile, Khawaja Junaid said that the PHF is laying an emphasis on grooming young players by providing them the most modern training in the academies.
Shahbaz Junior also called for the revival of club and school hockey while adding that the involvement of educational institutions was imperative to put hockey back on the road to success.
Saeed Anjum, who coached the Pakistan women's team for the qualifying round of the Asia Cup, said that apart from promoting men's hockey, PHF is also ensuring the best possible training for the women's hockey team.
'The results produced by my team in the round are not good but it is just the beginning to a new dimension and lengthy efforts required to help the women's team gain notable status at the Asian level,' he said.
While calling for an amicable solution to the problem, all the Olympians gathered on the occasion were of the view that the rift between the former Olympians Naveed Alam and Mansoor Ahmad and PHF is damaging the cause of hockey.
'Hockey is already in gloom and this recent controversy has further complicated the situation,' they said.
Ahmad Alam said that a majority of the former Olympians are united and with the PHF in reviving the national game and it was just a few former Olympians out
there trying to sabotage this process.— APP
Our Sports Reporter from Lahore adds The joint press conference of Olympians and internationals showing their support to the current PHF body headed by Qasim Zia mostly comprised those on the PHF payroll.
All missed no word of praise for the working of the current PHF management.
The move would undoubtedly boost the morale of the PHF Secretary Asif Bajwa, who has to appear before the National Assembly Standing Committee on Sports in Islamabad on Thursday to clear allegations levelled on him by the two former Olympians Mansoor Ahmed and Naveed Alam of assisting some persons in getting visas of different European countries.
Interestingly, almost all the key speakers at the press conference are being paid by the PHF for their roles as coaches, assistant coaches, selectors or for running the PHF academies. Most of them are also employees of different banks as well as the national airline and are receiving two salaries.
The speakers were of the view that the PHF was carrying out its best efforts to bring back the laurels and it was certainly on the right track. Pakistan improved its international ranking after playing the Asia Cup final, despite losing it, they said.
They further added that such baseless allegations as made by the two former Olympians cannot stop the current management from bringing improvement to the game. They were also of the view that establishing a good number of academies across the countries has given the national team a backup of over 600 players, still in the pipeline.
