LAHORE: Emphasising that currently there is a huge gap between Pakistan and world’s top hockey-playing nations, legend Hanif Khan says the country must develop a solid domestic structure and end favouritism in order to raise a strong team capable of competing against the very best in business.

In yet another extremely poor perf­­ ormance, Pakistan were crushed by England 7-0 in their FIH Pro League 2025-26 match in London on Saturday.

With this thrashing, Pakistan ended a pathetic last in the nine-team league after losing all their 16 matches. With this dismal show, they also failed to qualify for the next edition of the league.

Talking to Dawn on Saturday, Hanif termed it was an unwise decision to field the national team in such a high-profile competition featuring world’s leading teams without developing a strong domestic infrastructure needed to build a capable side.

“First of all, it was not a wise decision to field the team in such a high-profile event as the Pro League. Pakistan lacks the basic infrastructure, including strong domestic competitions, required to develop a team capable of competing against higher-ranked sides liked Belgium, Australia, Germany and the Netherlands,” Hanif, a member of Pakistan’s 1978 and 1982 World Cup winning teams, said.

“We have no competitive domestic structure which produces quality players.

“Secondly, expecting good results from this team was a misconception. Pakistan [in the Pro League] showed neither the defensive strength nor the attacking quality needed to prove they could compete at this level,” the 66-year-old, who was part of Pakistan’s gold medal winners at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, added.

He believed that the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) should have invested substantial funds spent on the Pro League campaign in strengthening the domestic structure and arranging training tours to Europe.

“It would have been better if the PHF had spent the huge amount — incurred on the Pro League — on improving the domestic system and arranging tours of European countries to better prepare the players for upcoming international events, like the World Cup and the Asian Games,” he underlined.

Hanif said Pakistan lacked quality in every department, particularly in defence and attack.

“Our [current] players do not even possess the skills to create penalty-corner opportunities like greats Manzoor Junior and Hasan Sardar did. They also struggle to exchange quick and accurate passes. If you cannot consistently threaten the opposition’s goal, how can you expect to compete with the world’s best teams?” he wondered.

Asked what the nation should expect from Pakistan in this year’s high-profile events like the World Cup (Aug 15-30) and the Asian Games (September-October), Hanif reckoned the team had little chance of finishing even among the top seven at the 16-nation World Cup, adding “winning the Asian Games gold medal will be extremely difficult in the presence of India”.

“We lost the first [Pro League] match to India by a narrow 4-3 margin, but that does not mean we are close to them in strength. India are a far superior side, and the way they won the second match 7-1 clearly proved that,” he highlighted.

Hanif urged the PHF president to immediately bring in Pakistan’s legendary penalty-corner specialist Sohail Abbas to work with the national team.

“At any cost, the PHF should hire Sohail. It is the federation’s responsibility to bring him in and have him train at least four players in this crucial department of the game,” he suggested.

He also advised the PHF president to hand over videos of Pakistan’s Pro League matches to the national selection committee.

“The selectors should sit with the team management, thoroughly analyse the videos and identify the team’s weak areas so that corrective measures can be taken,” he said.

FAVOURITISM SLAMMED

Hanif also criticised what he described as favouritism in the team selection.

“Another major issue is selection based on likes and dislikes. Several talented players who had been groomed earlier were sidelined simply because they had been selected during the tenure of former PHF secretary Haider Hussain. They were replaced with favourites, which significantly affected the team,” he stated.

“Selecting or dropping players on the basis of groupings is one of the biggest enemies of the national game. The PHF must eliminate this culture if it wants to build a strong team for the future.”

Published in Dawn, June 28th, 2026