Pakistani hockey is on its way up. In fact, both the junior and the senior outfits have rediscovered their winning ways.
First the junior team returned from Egypt after securing second place in the 5th Akhbar Al-Youm 7 Nation Hockey Tournament. Then, just last week, the senior outfit managed to beat World Champions Germany to lift the Azlan Shah Hockey trophy in Malaysia.
However, it is the junior team that is the focus of attention as in the coming couple of years it has to be ready not only for Asian Junior Hockey Championship, but also for the Junior Hockey World Cup in 2005.
The Juniors’ performance in Egypt was truly remarkable. Not only did the team remain undefeated, it also scored the most goals. The tournament also included India, France, Greece, Scotland, Poland and the hosts, Egypt. Poland, with 16 points clinched the gold while Pakistan walked away with the silver with 13.
Still, the most pleasing fact about this team is that this is the same outfit that had lost all four of its matches in a tournament, in Egypt, just four months back. Then it was up and against the hosts as well as France and India. And to top it all off, the team did not manage to score even a single goal.
Former Olympians and experts of the game strongly criticized the team’s performance. And since this result came after the fact that Pakistan had even failed to qualify for the first time for the Junior World Cup in 2001, hockey was as good as buried. for the record though, India won that Junior World Cup.
And then came this tourney in which the Juniors failed to even score a goal. The result also exposed the fact that at the junior level, hockey was being severely neglected. Even the National Junior Hockey Championship was not being held regularly. But then the PHF took the task of reviving hockey in the country. Reforms were introduced and the junior side was redone to make it rise to the level of international teams.
After the first Cairo outing, the PHF made timely changes. they realized the problems plaguing the team and subsequently, asked Asif Bajwa to coach the juniors. The result, Pakistan secured second position in the seven nation tournament.
During the tournament, Pakistan defeated France 4-0, thrashed the Greeks by 7-0 and tamed the Scots by three goals to two. Against World Champions India, the green shirts played well and took the lead in the first half.
However, the World Champions, fielding players from the Indian senior side, played better and managed to equalize. The game ended in a 1-1 tie. Against Poland, the eventual winners, result was the same. Against hosts Egypt as well, same fate awaited the Pakistanis. Just when Pakistan thought it had secured the game, Egypt managed to secure a penalty corner in the 70th minute of the game. According to the rules, if a penalty corner is given at the conclusion of the game, it can be availed. Egyptians, after missing the first attempt, were awarded another penalty corner. This time they made no error and drew the match 2-2.
These draws snatched the trophy away from Pakistan. They played marvelously and scored 18 goals and conceded only six.
Goalkeeper Salman Akbar was declared Best Player of the Tournament while centre forward Mahmood, was the top scorer of the tournament with eight goals, including a hat-trick.
Imran Mahmood scored four goals on penalty corners, including the two against Egypt. Two full-backs, Tariq Yamin and Ikhlaq Ahmed played outstandingly. They managed to form a good defense, one that did not allow the rivals to venture much into the Pakistani D. The fruits of their hard work bore only six goals against the team.
Manager of team, Abdul Rauf was pleased with the result. He was of the opinion that the team is now on the right track. The pros and cons of the team had been observed during the tournament and he promised that the management would work to remove the shortfalls during the next training camp.
However, he was of the opinion that the forwards were not that effective and thus would be trained to be more aggressive and productive. The results also showed that the potential was there in the present lot and there is nothing that good management and coaching cannot handle.
Secretary of PHF Mussaratullah Khan declared satisfactory the performance of the team. He made it clear that the first target is to win the Junior Hockey World Cup 2004 while the ultimate target is the Junior Hockey World Cup 2005.
Pakistani hockey is on its way up. In fact, both the junior and the senior outfits have rediscovered their winning ways.
