In the times earlier than the Tokyo Olympics, a statue of hockey legend Samiullah Khan was unveiled within the posh neighborhood of Model Town in Bahawalpur, Pakistan.
Pakistan wasn’t in Tokyo, however the sculpture was a reminder of all the things it as soon as liked concerning the nation’s hockey, and the electrical left-winger himself: the well-known darkish inexperienced shirt, the at all times smiling face of Samiullah, his The distinctive grip – unfastened decrease arm and versatile left wrist – and the big stride of a person nicknamed the ‘flying horse’ for his pace.
A couple of days later, the ball – which even the most effective defenders on the planet couldn’t steal from Samiullah’s stick – disappeared. Then he stole the stick. All that was left was a person in a inexperienced shirt standing in an ungainly place at a crossroads within the middle of city.
“You want to know what went wrong with Pakistan Hockey, that incident explains everything,” says a member of the Pakistan squad which is in Bhubaneswar for the Junior Hockey World Cup.
It form of does.
International hockey has spawned some outstanding tales over the previous decade: the rise of Belgium, the resurgence of India, Argentina’s golden run in Rio, the booming France and Ireland. On the opposite facet of the spectrum is Pakistan, whose decline – from fifth on the planet in 2013 to now 18th – has been staggering.
The Tokyo Olympics was the second sport in a row that the Green Shirts missed. They did not make it to the 2014 World Cup and had a forgettable outing in 2018. His efficiency within the Junior World Cup doesn’t paint a very good image for the long run both. Pakistan couldn’t progress past the group stage, dropping two of their three matches, their solely victory being towards a lowly Egypt.
“I wouldn’t say hockey is dead in Pakistan, otherwise we wouldn’t have a team here,” says the official. “But okay, it’s on life-support.”
To breathe life to them, he has turned to Siegfried Ekman, a Dutch coach of Indian-Surinamese origin. Aikman, set to turn out to be Pakistan’s abroad coach, is credited with reworking Japanese hockey, taking over a bunch of unknown gamers and making them champions of the Asian Games.
Despite some performances that supply hope – most famously a 4-4 draw towards the Netherlands in an Olympic qualifier – that form of in a single day success is tough to realize with Pakistan, the place issues run deep. And Aikman has some thought what he is doing.
archaic methods
“The old internationals, the Olympians, are in charge and they do what they did years ago. They belong to another era. They need to gain knowledge, understand the modern way of coaching,” says Ekman.
It’s the identical downside India confronted till the nation began counting on international coaches who contributed to a group that completed on the Olympic podium after 41 years. Pakistan already has some international coaches. But he didn’t have the sources to retain him for lengthy, whereas his former gamers didn’t have the means to study new teaching strategies.
So, although the hockey world has progressed on the health and tactical fronts, Pakistan is caught in a bygone period. As the opposition coach – it was Japan that eradicated Pakistan on the 2018 Asian Games – Aikman used Pakistan’s archaic coaching strategies to the benefit of his group.
“Their players are skilled but not physically fit enough to play modern hockey. Technically, they were unable to use their skills to play modern hockey. They make many unexpected mistakes, get tired and have poor decision making ability. Their tactical concepts are a bit old-fashioned too,” he says. “They have the potential. But like India, they also need time to change. I hope I can help them.”
The incapacity to spend money on growing coaches is comprehensible, provided that Pakistan is barely capable of increase funds to compete in vital worldwide tournaments.
financial disaster, corruption
Pakistan’s first project beneath their new coach would be the Asian Champions Trophy to be held in Dhaka in December. In the earlier version held in 2018, India and Pakistan shared the trophy after the ultimate was washed out.
But throughout that event, he didn’t even manage to pay for to pay his resort invoice in Muscat. He was prone to being kicked out of the resort in the midst of the competitors and was solely capable of keep as a result of his embassy stepped in and cleared the pending payments.
Weeks later, they had been able to ship the group to Bhubaneswar for the World Cup after a personal firm was able to fund them after the federal government refused to bear the fee. The funding freeze continued in 2019 as properly when Pakistan had been compelled to drag out of the FIH Pro League, a home-and-away event involving the world’s high hockey nations.
Pakistan had been to play their house matches in Scotland however didn’t have $650,000, the quantity wanted for his or her participation within the six-month-long league. Eventually, he needed to drop out and, sarcastically, get closely fined by the worldwide federation.
According to the Dawn newspaper, the shortage of monetary assist, particularly from the federal government, comes on the again of a sequence of corruption allegations towards former gamers and federation officers, forcing the federal government to order audits on previous funds.
The financial state of affairs appears to be enhancing. But not the general state of affairs. In truth, it’s so terrifying that a few of the stalwarts of the sport have turned their backs on Pakistan hockey.
Hasan Sardar, who was the group’s supervisor on the 2018 World Cup, mentioned on the time: “There is not any hockey tradition within the nation (Pakistan). People are extra into cricket, individuals comply with cricket extra. I believe if I had been a child with expertise in hockey, I might have most well-liked to play cricket than hockey. ,
Pakistan’s three-time Olympian Shakeel Abbasi advised Al Jazeera: “I made a mistake choosing hockey over cricket.”
Thus, the incident with the statue of Samiullah is indicative of the state of affairs through which Pakistan hockey finds itself. The stolen stick and ball are re-established and the thief is arrested.
Meanwhile, the hunt for the glory days of Pakistan remains to be on.
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With inputs from TheIndianEXPRESS
