LAHORE: Tanveer Dar Hockey Academy will celebrate its 12th anniversary on Friday at the National Hockey Stadium to acknowledge its achievements earned since it was found.

Olympian Tauqir Dar, the mentor of the Academy told Dawn he found it in the holy month of Ramazan in 2006 in memory of his uncle, Olympian Tanveer Dar and his father Olymian Munir Dar, with the aim to provide an opportunity to aspiring players to groom their talent free of cost.

“By the grace of God, in 12 years, the academy did not charge a single penny from its students. Instead it has been providing sports equipment, kits, food, accommodation and even caring for their education, too,” Dar said.

He said when the Academy started functioning there were only eight students and gradually the number has rised to around 70-plus including eight goalkeepers.

“Five players of the academy have played in Pakistan senior team and as many in the junior side and two in the Pakistan U-18 side, which is real contribution for the development of hockey,” he said.

Arslan Qadir, Bilal Qadir, Aleem Bilal, Faisal Qadir and Rana Sohail Riaz all made it to the senior national side. While Waqar Younus, Ali Aziz, Adeel Latif, Awais Arshad, and Hammad Anjam were prominent national junior players. Awais Arshad and Zulqernain had represented the country at the U-18 level.

“The academy has been generating its resources at its own as it did not want any grant from the government sector,” he said.

Dar said the academy had arranged its first tour of India in 2008, where it won the Inter-academy U-16 tournament in Amritsar, surprising all the rivals with the performance. He said the Indian organisers did not invite Dar Academy to come and play since then.

“So far the boys of the Academy have also toured Europe in 2010, 2011, 2012, 2015 and 2017. And in 2016, the academy toured Malaysia,” he informed.

Despite making significant contributions to the national team, Dar is not interested in the politics of the Pakistan Hockey Federation of which the elections were held last week.

He said the first coaches of the academy were late Olympian Akhlaq Ahmad and Abdul Wahid Khan. Currently, he said, Olympian Danish Kaleem was the head coach. He said the real assets of the Academy were its players and coaches and among them were assistant coach Ijaz Ahmad and goalkeeping coach Waqas Butt and secretary Irfan Zia.

He said the Academy was also running its hostel where all boys coming from outside the city stay and get free facilities of accommodation, food, education, sticks, kits and everything they need.

“Dar Hockey Academy is a place where everyone can come and learn hockey free of cost as it is open for everyone,” said Dar.

Dar Academy’s success — providing 12 players to the national sides in as many years — is an example for other Olympians who have not worked hard enough to support Pakistan’s reeling hockey structure but are just waiting to get a role in the national federation.

Published in Dawn, May 22nd, 2018