LET me come straight to the point. The decision by the Pakistan Hockey Federation to hire the services of foreign officials for the national team is, as I see it, wrong. Blatantly wrong. This only goes to show that the Federation has finally come to the conclusion that the resources available in the country are not worth their salt. If so, it is as regrettable a conclusion as it is misplaced.
A similar decision was taken way back in 1994 and it has always amazed me that the foreign coach hired at the time is generally credited with the World Cup gold that Pakistan was able to win that year.
It is a matter of record and the readers can easily verify it for themselves that even before the team had left the shores for the assignment, the coach had made it public that he had severe differences over team selection, and is on record having said before the tournament that “this is not my team.” In fact, he had resigned and was requested to stay till the completion of the World Cup. It was only after the team had done well that he owned it with open arms, proving the maxim right that while defeat is an orphan, victory has many fathers.
Before I say anything further, let us have a quick glance over what Pakistani outfits have achieved over the decades without having any foreign assistance. Here it goes:
London Olympics Gold (1948), Asian Games Gold (1958), Olympics Gold (1960), Asian games Gold (1962), Olympics Silver (1964), Mexico Olympics Gold (1968), Bangkok Asian Games (1970), Barcelona World Cup (1971), Munich Olympics Silver (1972), Christchurch International Gold (1974), Tehran Asian Games (1974), Kuala Lumpur World Cup Silver (1975), Quaid-e-Azam Centenary Cup Gold (Lahore — 1976), Montreal Olympics Gold (1976), Bangkok Asian Games (1978), Argentina World Cup (1978), Lahore Champions Trophy (1978), Delhi Asian Games (1982), Bombay World Cup (1982), Los Angeles Olympics (1984), Delhi Asia Cup (1989), Indira Gandhi Cup (Lucknow — 1989), Beijing Asian Cup (1990), Holland Champions Trophy Silver (1991), Barcelona Olympics Bronze (1992).
By any standards, it is a glittering list of achievements. It is a matter of national pride that despite Pakistan’s lack of success in the last few years, we remain the nation that has lifted the maximum number of titles in the history of the game; almost all of them, as I said, without any foreign assistance.
While Pakistan has earned a few more medals — Gold, Silver and Bronze — beyond 1992, you would have noticed that I finished the list above at that very year. There is a reason to it. You can see from the list that between 1989 and 1992, Pakistan had played the final of five major tournaments, and the nucleus of the team that lifted the World Cup in 1994 was already there. The foreign coach only had a whale of a time at the expense of the PHF and quit without any accountability. Had he been such a success that he is made out to be, why did not the PHF management at the time continue with him?
The fact is that senior Pakistan professionals have done a wonderful job with the national team in whatever capacity they have been hired by the PHF. And the list of such individuals is as glittering as that of the titles the team had clinched. It includes such big names as Brigadier Atif, Brigadier Hameedi, Colonel Zafari, Waheed Khan, Anwar Ali Khan, Munir Dar, Zakauddin, Khalid Mahmood, Sami Khan, Jahangir Butt, Riaz Ahmed, Manzoor Hussain, Munawwar Zaman, Shahnaz, Rashid Junior, Samiullah, Hanif Khan, Salim Nazim, Tahir Zaman, Shahbaz Ahmad and so many others.
It is our great fortune that most of them are still available to guide the team through. By the same token, it is our great misfortune that the PHF has decided not to make use of such individuals, and, instead, go for Roelant Oltmans of Holland, and Collin Tino of Italy.
The problem with the PHF, like its counterparts in other spheres of national life, is that it is willing to go out of the way to meet the exorbitant cost of having a foreign coach even when it is not fully free of financial woes. But when it comes to professionals from within our own resources, it refuses to loosen its purse strings. It just does not realize that a foreign coach is a useless entity, who would struggle to even communicate properly with the boys, what to talk of earning their respect which is so very vital for any coach worth his name.
LET me come straight to the point. The decision by the Pakistan Hockey Federation to hire the services of foreign officials for the national team is, as I see it, wrong. Blatantly wrong. This only goes to show that the Federation has finally come to the conclusion that the resources available in the country are not worth their salt. If so, it is as regrettable a conclusion as it is misplaced.
