LAHORE: Former Olympians, who have seen national flag fly high on numerous occasions in world hockey in the past, lashed out at the PHF after Pakistan failed to qualify for the 2016 Rio Olympics following an embarrassing 0-1 defeat at the hands of Ireland on Friday.

One of them explicitly called it ‘doomsday for Pakistan hockey’.

“We have been listening to the same rhetoric from the PHF and their coaches for several years that ‘the team will win’ so and so event, but actually they came back empty-handed [on almost all occasions],” former Olympian Khawaja Zakauddin lamented.

“We finished a pathetic 12th at the 2010 World Cup and then we were ousted from the 2014 edition and now we will not be featuring in the Olympics for the first time, and therefore it is nothing but a doomsday for Pakistan hockey,” Zakauddin added.

“There seems to be an unending road of disaster for Pakistan hockey and I think all the stakeholders, including the government, should focus how to resurrect the national game which over the years has experienced unprecedented decline,” underlined Zaka, who has served Pakistan as head coach and manager on several occasions.

Zaka, however, agreed that the government had to take care of the players at all costs.

“The players should be honoured by all means by the government as they are the custodians of our national game,” he insisted.

Manzoor-ul-Hasan Senior, another Olympian, vented his anger over the team’s crash in Antwerp, saying it was time the PHF officials, who had been claiming themselves to be the ‘custodians’ of modern hockey, should feel ashamed.

However, when reminded that the team’s head coach Shahnaz Sheikh also belonged to the old hockey genre, Manzoor reckoned the head coach had committed several errors after joining ‘modern hockey’ campaigner like Asif Bajwa and company.

According to Manzoor, the biggest mistake committed by Shahnaz was of relieving Nasir Ali and Sameer Hussain as his assistant coaches on the advice of the PHF, and acquiring the services of Danish Kaleem.

“One can’t understand why the PHF sacked Shahnaz’s assistant coaches [Sameer and Nasir] — who were doing a good job — at the eleventh hour to adjust Danish,” Manzoor wondered.

He added: “The players are not responsible for the defeat [in Antwerp] as they have been totally ignored by the PHF officials.

“They have no respect from the officials as well as coaches.”

Asked how much blame the government (which had denied the supposedly cash-strapped PHF financial assistance in the past two years) should take for the present catastrophic situation of Pakistan hockey, Manzoor said federal ministers Ishaq Dar and Pervaiz Rashid had expressed their reservations over the reputation of current PHF office-bearers.

“Therefore, how could they hand over funds to such people?”

Meanwhile, Col. Mudassar, who also acted as PHF secretary in the past, said he could not believe that Ireland defeated Pakistan.

“I will not say that it is shameful for PHF president Akhtar Rasool or his secretary Rana Mujahid. As a nation, it is the darkest day for Pakistan hockey, and we all should feel shamed,” Mudassar said with a grieved voice.

Published in Dawn, July 4th, 2015

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