AFTER a long time, the Indian hockey team has arrived in Pakistan to play an eight-match series. Half of the matches will be played on Indian soil. This is a good omen. Such exchanges must be planned on a regular basis. I will write in detail about the hockey series in my next column, because by the time this piece appears only three out of four matches in Pakistan will have been played.
I hope the series will provide a good opportunity for both the counties to rebuild their teams and revive their Asian style of field hockey.
Pakistan has a slight edge over the Indian team, but in my personal opinion the series will prove to be a very exciting and closely-fought one, because both the countries play hockey in a similar style.
I am a great believer in the Indo-Pak hockey series. If we play against each other frequently, we will be able to promote Asian hockey in a better way. I think hockey federations of India and Pakistan should send their junior teams (of school and college level) to each other’s countries. This idea will bear fruit in the future. It will prove to be beneficial in two ways: firstly, the relations between the neighbouring countries would normalize; and secondly, youngsters will get international exposure in an early stage of their careers.
The Indian hockey team is touring Pakistan after a gap of five years. It will play four Test matches during its visit to Pakistan before hosting their arch rivals for the remaining part of the series. It was in 1999 that the Indians had last played a Test series in Pakistan.
The Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) this time has ignored versatile plays like Dhanraj Pillay, Baljit Singh Dhillon, Deepak Thakur and Gagan Ajit Singh, all of whom were part of their team at the Athens Olympics. Four of the players made themselves unavailable for selection for different reasons, while veterans Pillay and Dhillon withdrew from the series because of their commitments to play for foreign clubs. Deepak Thakur fell prey to injury and Gagan Ajit pulled out due to personal reasons. This is a great setback to the Indians. Pakistan is also missing three major players: former captain Nadeem ND (now retired), goal-keeper Ahmed Alam and Ali Raza.
The Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) and its Pakistani counterpart have decided to felicitate four former players from each country during the eight-match series. India’s World Cup winning captain Ajitpal Singh and former Olympian-turned-selectors B.P. Govinda, Aslam Sher Khan and Surinder Singh Sodhi will be felicitated during the Indian hockey team’s tour of Pakistan. Pakistan’s former greats Jehangir Butt, Akhtar Rasool, Hasan Sardar and myself will be honoured during the matches in India.
It appears that Indian selectors have the next year’s Champions Trophy and the Junior World Cup 2005 on their mind. That’s why the IHF announced a new-look 18-member team to tour Pakistan.
The Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) should also think on similar lines and prepare a team for the next World Cup and the Beijing Olympics. I have written on several occasions that we must prepare at least two or three second string teams because when a couple of players retire, we are left with a big gap to fill, which ultimately affects our performance.
Having said that, one must realize that the general interest in the game of hockey in the last four years has gone down, chiefly because our team’s performance has not been up to scratch. Hopefully, this Indo-Pak series will attract a large number of fans.
Now I briefly discuss the already held matches in the series. In the first encounter in Karachi, Pakistan beat India by a narrow margin of 2-1. Pakistan’s most lethal weapon Sohail Abbas was on target again. I think the scoreline was alarming for the Pakistan coach, because the Indian team is an inexperienced one.
The host paid the price for taking its inexperienced opponents lightly in the second match. India outplayed Pakistan in every department of the game and defeated the home team by 4-1.
In the third match in Peshawar, Sohail Abbas’s last moment goal helped his team beat India by 3-2.
In the end I wish the best of luck to both the teams for the rest of the series. I hope Pakistan and India will play this series in a friendly atmosphere and make the disenchanted hockey fans come back to hockey arenas.
AFTER a long time, the Indian hockey team has arrived in Pakistan to play an eight-match series. Half of the matches will be played on Indian soil. This is a good omen. Such exchanges must be planned on a regular basis. I will write in detail about the hockey series in my next column, because by the time this piece appears only three out of four matches in Pakistan will have been played.
