PAKISTANIS hoped against hope for a hockey medal at the London Olympics until their team was ferociously thrown out of the competition by Australia. If there was no harm in attaching expectations to the national side, the change in the public mood following Tuesday’s 7-0 drubbing is also not difficult to understand. Sport is a befitting forum for the expression of the see-saw sentiment that characterises life in Pakistan today. The lament will continue for some time to come, interspersed as it surely will be with the constant quipping of the ‘I-told-you-so’ types.

Evaluation of the factors leading to the fall of Pakistan hockey is already under way. Indeed, in the first game that the team played in the London Olympics, they were shown by Pakistani experts to be battling the new blue Astroturf as much as they were trying to outdo their opponents. This had resonance with the old Pakistani explanation in which the changing face of the game has often been blamed for the ‘death’ of the Asian style we excelled in. It would have been alright had it just been an explanation, a first step towards correcting the approach and bringing it in sync with international standards. The problem is in the classical escape that finds the country and its people seeing a conspiracy against them in everything around. Hockey rules are not simply responsible for taking the beauty out of the game and turning it into a virtual wrestling bout; they are a plot against us. The Astroturf is also a conspiracy, and the refereeing is often biased, we believe. In the hockey field and in general, this victim syndrome will have to be overcome and replaced with confidence. The game is how it is. Play it or leave it. There is no other way.