ISLAMABAD: Impressed with present hockey talent in Pakistan, German legend Christian “Büdi” Blunck on Wednesday said that by increasing the pool of players and developing required facilities the country could regain its glory in the game.

The 56-year-old Blunck, who was part of the gold medal-winning team at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics and is currently on a short tour of Pakistan, insisted that the country’s current hockey players had talent while adding that “lot of work is required to be done to enhance their skills, fitness and game awareness”.

Germany’s U-21 squad is currently on a tour to Pakistan on an invitation of the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) for a four-match series with Pakistan’s U-21 side.

The visitors have taken an unbeatable 3-0 lead in the series with one match to be played at the Naseer Bunda Stadium in Islamabad on Thursday (today).

Dawn caught up with Blunck at an Iftar dinner in Islamabad, which was hosted by German Ambassador to Pakistan Alfred Grannas for visiting German U-21 and Pakistan U-21 teams at the German Embassy.

“Pakistan should increase the pool of players by involving youth in the game and providing more facilities to them,” Blunck said.

Pakistan holds an extremely rich history in international field hockey. Besides winning the World Cup a record four times — 1971, 1978, 1982 and 1994 — the country clinched Olympic title thrice (1960, 1968 and 1984) besides bagging three Champions Trophy crowns in 1978, 1980 and 1994. The Green-shirts during their days of glory also seized several titles in the Asian Games and Asian Cup hockey.

However, Pakistan has faced an unprecedented decline in the game during the past two, three decades mainly due to poor administration that besides damaging the game caused gradual dwindling of resources for hockey. As a result, the youth in Pakistan, during the past several years have been losing interest in the sport.

According to Blunck, Pakistan should expand the game by involving more and more young players in the game.

“Do you know, in Hamburg which is my home city, we have over 12,000 hockey players,” Blunck revealed. “More and more international tours and matches are req­uired for Pakistan to improve in the game.”

Shehbaz Ahmed Senior, the former Paki­stan captain and hockey legend, who was part of the conversation, said that the views pointed out by Blunck player were correct.

“We [Pakistan] will work on them [areas highlighted by Blunck] to bring improvement in the national game,” Shehbaz, the captain of the 1994 World Cup-winning team, said.

The visit of German U-21 team — the current world champions — to Pakistan is very important for Pakistani players to improve their skills while playing against best side of the world, Shehbaz noted.

Shehbaz, who is a friend of Blunck, hoped that the German star would keep visiting Pakistan “to help our hockey”.

Germany is world champion as they won junior world cup in 2023 in Malaysia after defeating France is now eyeing on upcoming junior world cup to be held in India this year.

Separately, speaking to Dawn, players of Germany’s junior team, Paulglander and Uiklas Techlenburg, lauded the performance of their Pakistan counterparts.

They said that though they had beaten Pakistan in all three matches, the home players performed brilliantly in the series.

Hayat Zikriya, who has represented Pakistan’s senior team many times, is part of the junior team in the ongoing series against Germany, said that the visit of German team’s visit was crucial for Pakistan hockey.

“Hosting Germany, who are world champions, is something very special for us. It will help our players improve their game,” Hayat said.

According to German Embassy in Islamabad, members of the German squad were amazed by the natural beauty of Pakistan and the hospitality of its people.

Published in Dawn, March 13th, 2025