With not many tournaments left to play in the next couple of years, the PHF has all the time  on its hands to change the way hockey is played in Pakistan.

They promised not to return empty-handed from Beijing. “We are confident that we'll reach the podium at the Olympics this year,” they said.

And so the nation had high hopes from the green shirts.

Even though it was shocking to see our hockey team go down in the Beijing Olympics over the last two weeks, we have to admit that deep down we already knew what their fate would be.

Granted that we were the champions once but this is not the same team that won us glory in the sport so many years ago. It did not win us four World Cups, three Olympic gold medals, an equal number of Champions Trophy titles and three Asia Cups. The credit for all that goes to players like Islahuddin Siddiqui, Shahnaz Sheikh, Hasan Sardar, Shahid Ali Khan, Shahbaz Ahmed and Flying Horse Samiullah, and they have long retired from the sport, leaving a great void to be filled by new players not willing to understand the need of the day.

They are the ones thanks to whom Pakistan hasn't been able to win the Olympic gold since the 1984 Games in Los Angeles. Leave alone winning gold, we haven't won any medal in hockey for four consecutive Olympics.

The last time Pakistan won the World Championship or the Champions Trophy, that we started in the first place, was some 14 years ago, in 1994. Hockey in Pakistan has been on a steady downfall since then. Thanks to them we did not even qualify for the semifinals of the Asia Cup last year, the first time since 1982. Other recent disgraceful performances include coming fourth at the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup in Malysia, earlier in May where countries like Argentina, India and New Zealand proved themselves better. Pakistan which once prided itself for being on top in the national sport is ranked seventh today in the International Hockey Federation (IHF) rankings. And we are slipping fast.

Hence we watched Pakistan lose to Great Britain 4-2 in the first Beijing Olympics encounter as the team's chief coach and manager Khawaja Zakauddin, who had been making tall claims about Pakistan's sure triumph at the Games, was seen pacing up and down the sidelines while coach Naveed Alam could be spotted literally pulling his hair at our missed chances. Had they kept their cool, they could have given some confidence to the players and also thought about other important matters such as rolling substitutions for instance as the opposing team was doing. Later, it was pointed out that Britain made some 46 substitutions in order to provide rest to their valuable players while Pakistan only made four changes throughout the match.

The win gave Britain its first Olympic hockey victory over us since the 1952 Helsinki Games when they beat us for the bronze medal. That was 56 years ago.

The following match against Canada saw us coming back into the game in the second half to win it by 3-1. That got Khawaja Zakauddin talking again about Pakistan's wonderful strategy. But the next one we lost again, to Australia by 3-1.

Zaka then announced that the team was actually concentrating on beating the Netherlands. Watching Pakistan beat South Africa 3-1 in the following group 'B' match, made our hopes go up again.

And then came Pakistan's 100th hockey match in the Olympics since its first appearance in the 1948 London Games. The Netherlands beat Pakistan 4-2. With dreams of reaching the podium going down the drain, Pakistan had hoped to finish in the top six teams at least so as to qualify for next year's Champions Trophy. But after losing to the Netherlands 4-2, we reached new lows on the points table to play the 7-8 placement match instead of the 5-6 one. And we lost even that to New Zealand 2-4 to finish eighth, our lowest-ever rank in Olympic hockey history.

Having failed to qualify for the Champions Trophy twice already, in 2000 and this year, next year would be the third time for us to not qualify for the annual event.

In the aftermath of the Beijing Olympics debacle, there has been much talk about changes within the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) at the high level. Federal minister for sports Najamuddin Khan, it was said, had demanded a resignation from the federation head Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali. Meanwhile, Khawaja Zakauddin himself wanted to quit and he did so too after the team's return on Monday night. Two days later coach Naveed Alam also stepped down.

The innocent victim in all this though would have to be chief selector Islahuddin Siddiqui, who picked out the Olympics squad. But then one should look into how that was done in the first place. The former hockey great was in the US for several months after his son was in a serious road accident there. He had only just landed in Karachi when he was called to Lahore to select the team.

Then team captain and deep defender Zeeshan Ashraf had apologised to the nation on behalf of his team for their dismal performance. It is also being said that many of the players within the squad are way too old to carry on playing. The captain says he will retire shortly but then he also hinted that he wanted to play some more. Forward Rehan Butt too has no desire to leave.

The senior players must think highly of themselves but then there are also expert observers such as hockey legend Samiullah who says, “I cannot even name one outstanding player in the current squad who has it in him to take this team forward.”

There has been talk of the Astroturf being the culprit behind the demise of hockey in the subcontinent. And although, he too has played several matches on artificial grass that Pakistan won, Samiullah says that it has undoubtedly changed the game to become a more strategy-oriented sport. “Other countries like Australia, Korea, China and even Malaysia have adopted the power system and the scientific method of training so why can't we?”

Astroturf demands more stamina from the players which requires strength training too,” says Samiullah, “But when we make our aging players build their strength through weight training, etc, they end up losing whatever skill they have. Strength and skill should go hand in hand.”

So perhaps our players could be compared to old dogs unable to learn new tricks. What now? Could bringing in a foreign coach help?

“Yes,” says the legend, “but for the Under-17 boys. That way even the U-19 and U-20 boys who hide their ages and lie their way into the U-17 camps would benefit from the new techniques. Later when they reach the national team, there would surely be an improvement.”

The current PHF Secretary Asif Bajwa would agree. “The rules are the same for all teams, but we still rely on old ways dribbling, jack tackles, long hits, which has to change,” he had said sometime back.

With not many tournaments left to play in the next couple of years, the PHF has all the time on its hands to change the way hockey is played in Pakistan. Many heads may roll in the process but it will all be for the good of the game.