EID over, the national team will now get ready for the tough assignments that lie ahead. While there are quite a few events that will test the mettle of the boys and the team officials, like, for instance, the Azlan Shah tourney and the Champions Trophy, but the resolve will undergo its most serious test during the pre-Olympics qualifiers and, the Olympics itself.
It may sound a bit strange that I am talking of the qualifiers and the event itself in the same breath and in the same context when participation in the latter is subject to the team’s performance in the former. The reason why I am doing this is quite simple: I firmly believe that Pakistan will most certainly qualify for the main round.
In turn, the reason why I have such a firm belief in the outcome is, again, very simple: as many as seven places are available for teams to graduate from the qualifiers to the main round. Frankly speaking, had there been two or three positions available, my optimism would not have been that high.
As things stand today, regardless of how Pakistan plays, a position in the top seven is there for the taking. Mind you, we are talking of top seven positions among the nations that will feature in the qualifying round, and not in world hockey. The two are entirely different propositions and our minds shall be very clear on the issue.
Taking a broader view of the situation, however, it pains me to see Pakistan having to play the qualifying round for the second successive occasion. The last time we had finished second, behind Spain, and had taken the fourth spot in the Olympics itself, behind Holland, South Korea and Australia, which at the time was good showing in view of the kind of performances that were delivered by the team in the preceding years that had actually led to the situation where the team had to suffer the ignominy of having to play the qualifiers, which was for the first time in the history of the nation.
Having wasted that turnaround in fortunes over the last three or so years, the team is now set to feature in its second qualifiers, and, the way things appear today, it looks likely that the qualifiers may well become a matter of routine. The pain it gives me just to write about such an unfortunate possibility is beyond description. One really has to have the cause of national hockey close to his heart with all the sincerity of intent and purpose to feel that pain, and I wonder if there are many who will understand what it means to me.
For a nation that still — even after having been hit by a gloomy title drought for almost a decade — has the most number of titles to its credit in international hockey, it is downright disgusting to face the minnows in qualifying rounds of world events like the Olympics and the World Cup, and face the constant threat of missing out on the Champions Trophy.
In the good old days, we used to have all the major titles — the Olympics, the World Cup, the Champions Trophy, the Asian Games — in the bag simultaneously. Today, we do not have even a single one of them. To add to the agony, we recently bungled two chances to make an impression; first at the Asia Cup, and then at the Afro-Asian Games.
I sincerely hope that in the year of the Olympics, the team will somehow pick itself up from the ashes, and do something worthwhile. Let’s hope — and pray — that it is not a case of hoping against hope.
EID over, the national team will now get ready for the tough assignments that lie ahead. While there are quite a few events that will test the mettle of the boys and the team officials, like, for instance, the Azlan Shah tourney and the Champions Trophy, but the resolve will undergo its most serious test during the pre-Olympics qualifiers and, the Olympics itself.
