The officials of the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) are beating the drum on the success against low-rated Oman in the four-match junior under-18 series as if they had win the junior World Cup.

In fact, the series has thoroughly exposed the loopholes of the home team which is quite evident from the results of the matches. The tour turned out to be beneficial for the visitors.

According to results, the visiting Oman opened their campaign on a confident note when they held greenshirts to a two-all draw in the opener.

The latter won the second 6-1, third 3-0 and fourth 8-3. All the games were played at Lahore’s National Hockey Stadium.

Asian giant South Korea and even China have learnt finer points of the game by touring Pakistan frequently in the past. Now Oman is making rapid progress.

The junior under-21 World Cup is around the corner and will be played at Lucknow from Dec 8 to 18 with 16 teams vying for honours.

The teams includes Argentina; Australia; Austria; Belgium; Canada; Egypt; England; Germany; India; Japan; South Korea; Netherlands; South Africa; New Zealand; Pakistan and Spain.

Having won the title six times since inception of the cup at Versailles, France, in 1979, fancied Germany is on course to complete second hat-trick if they retain the title.

Germans have won four titles in-a-row at Kuala Lumpur in 1982, at Vancouver in 1985, at Ipoh in 1989 and at Terassa in 1993. Their back-to-back two titles came at Johor Bahru in 2009 and at Delhi in 2013.

Pakistan won the inaugural edition at Versailles in 1979 under Manzoor Hussain Jr, Australia won at Milton Keynes in 1997, India won at Hobart in 2001 and Argentina at Rotterdam in 2005.

The incumbent PHF officials have completed one year in office last month. They had full blessings of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who is also patron-in-chief of the PHF.

The prime minister has opened government coffers to revive the national game which has reached a new-low.

According to figures, he has doled out millions of rupees to the PHF so far in three tranche -- Rs70.5 million, Rs50 million and recently announced Rs200 million.

Government has always lent financial support to the PHF as well as to the other games within its limited resources but unfortunately, a big chunk of money is misused by national federations besides the foreign sojourns.

The present government alleged that hefty grants were given to Qasim Zia-led and Akhtar Rasool-led PHF’s which they have plundered.

The nation will not forgive the damage that has been done to the national game for a long time to come.

Results are a true barometer to judge the performance which can only be achieved through better planning, sincerity and honesty.

In the last one year, the PHF has failed to revive the club and inter-school hockey which serves as a reservoir of unearthing talented youth.

Secondly, it’s true that funds are vital but the incumbent PHF chief, who is close to the government, should also ask the prime minister to issue instruction to the banks and multi-national organisations to raise teams.

The monthly stipend will help keep player’s interest alive in the game.

Published in Dawn September 26th, 2016