Pakistan, once the proud holder of all major trophies including the World Cup and Olympics and envy of all hockey playing nations, has plunged to the lowest of lows in rankings, barely managing to qualify for the World Cup to be played later this year after finishing a disappointing fourth in China and the latest debacle in the Azlan Shah Cup, heaped further humiliation.

A country which has automatically qualified for all previous World Cups due to its high ranking and the only nation to have lifted the coveted trophy for an unprecedented four times struggled against minnows Ireland, Belgium and South Africa which clearly suggests things are not moving in the right direction. The latest defeat in Kuala Lumpur against Argentina was another body blow to Pakistan’s hockey prestige.

It was 1994 when Pakistan last won a major title the — World Cup — in Australia. From then on it has been downhill all the way with results getting from bad to worse with no improvement in sight.

The reasons behind this disgraceful fall for a team that was once the invincible Asian powerhouse are multiple, but the major one being that the game’s ruling body Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) has been managed by incompetent and non-professionals.

When appointment of top officials to run sports are based on whim and fancy by Islamabad then one should not be surprised by the results achieved. The same has been in the case of PHF.

Unfortunately, both the top slots of PHF for the past five years have been in the hands of non-professionals who hardly had any knowledge of hockey. Naturally the game suffered in every aspect, including results at the international level.

First came General Mohammad Aziz, who at the time of taking over as president of PHF, was a serving general and had many more pressing engagements to tackle. So the game suffered as his hand-picked secretary, Brig Musarratullah Khan, was defacto chief and seemed to be more interested in foreign tours than in the betterment of the game.

After General Aziz stepped down another non-hockey personality, Syed Tariq Kirmani, was picked to revive the ever-declining fortunes of the sport. It was another wrong choice as the latter himself admitted that he has never picked up a hockey stick in his life.

Instead of getting rid of the old management and rope in men having knowledge of the game and a clean reputation the newly appointed PHF chief retained Musarratullah. The outcome was obvious as Pakistan’s fortunes continued to nosedive.

Every time the team puts up dismal performance the PHF officials shamelessly declare that the next major event is their objective.

This has been the slogan of the present management. Not surprising the same slogan has again been floated by the PHF president and by now a more powerful coach-manager Asif Bajwa. This is nothing but a cruel joke.

The PHF chief declared the other day that Pakistan’s target was Olympics while Bajwa insists his goal was this year’s World Cup.

Besides being relegated virtually to also-rans in world rankings, Pakistan have also received negative publicity as bad losers and with worst disciplinary record during the last five years. Even PHF officials were alleged to have been involved in human smuggling.

Pakistan hockey has suffered immensely and to avoid further humiliation it is time for the Sports Ministry and Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) to get rid of present PHF president and secretary and replace them with competent and honest people with a hockey background.

Unless such drastic action is taken Pakistan hockey’s fate will be no different than that of squash.