THE Pakistan hockey team sprung quite a surprise for its diminishing fan base on Sunday when it clinched the Asian Champions Trophy title in the Japanese city of Kakamigahara by beating the hosts 3-1 in the final. Though the Asian event did not put the national team’s combative abilities to real test, since leading teams such as Australia, Holland, Germany and Spain were, naturally, not competing, the win salvaged a bit of pride for them at the fag end of a rather disastrous year that saw them miss out on a spot in next year’s World Cup in The Netherlands, for the first time ever.

Mohammad Imran’s men clearly showed signs of improvement by scoring narrow victories over Malaysia and arch-rivals India in key games at the Asian event. In Sunday’s final, too, they held their nerve to make a strong comeback after hosts Japan had taken an early lead. Critics and followers of the game, however, remain sceptical about a possible revival of the game despite Sunday’s win. The repeated setbacks in the past decade and the plummeting graph of the national team in international events deter them from harbouring any false hopes. A host of former Olympians, therefore, have launched a series of protests against the incumbent Pakistan Hockey Federation regime for its failure to take the necessary measures to resurrect the game. While the emergence of talented youngsters like Hammad Butt and Shafqat Rasool bodes well for the future, a continued dearth of academies to groom upcoming hockey players has led to the decline of Pakistan hockey and the issue needs to be addressed on nothing less than a war footing. Considering that hockey’s golden era in Pakistan spanned a number of years, recovering lost ground is still possible.