KARACHI, April 30 With hockey as its national game, it is ironic that Pakistan have only two proper synthetic turfs of international standards available for the players to practice on.

While Pakistan has the honour of being the most successful team in the hockey World Cups — with four titles and six appearances in the final — they are not well equipped to match the world standards in hockey surfaces.

In contrast, the Netherlands has more than 400 Astroturf and it is no wonder that they have hogged the limelight in previous so many years in world hockey. Pakistan, on the other hand, has gone down to number 8 in the world hockey circuit with its infrastructure totally in disarray.

“We have an Astroturf here in Steel Town hockey stadium but it, unfortunately, has expired and we are working to have a new one,” informs Rashid Mohammad, the sports in-charge of Pakistan Steel.

Rashid, a Grade-I hockey umpire of the International Hockey Federation (FIH) and manager umpire of the Pakistan Hockey Federation, gave a detailed account of the Astroturfs in Karachi and elsewhere which could be an eye-opener for the game's officials.

He revealed that the Astroturf at the UBL Sports Complex had also expired and they were also thinking of replacing it with a new one.

“There is another Astroturf at the Defence Stadium but children play cricket on it which is a shame,” he said. “The only proper Astroturf in Karachi is at the Hockey Club of Pakistan and the other international standard Astroturf is at the National Hockey Stadium in Lahore. Other than these two, there is no proper Astroturf in Pakistan,” Rashid added.

A PHF official told reporters that Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Quetta, Peshawar, Bannu, Gojra, Hyderabad, Sialkot and Faisalabad have one synthetic turf each.

“Habib Public School and another school in Gojra produced most of the prominent hockey players for Pakistan hockey. The HPS is making efforts to install an Astroturf at its hockey ground but due to some problem they have delayed their plan. Hopefully they will soon have an Astroturf,” Rashid said. He commended the efforts of City District Government Karachi for installing Astroturf at the Olympian Iftikhar Syed Sports Academy (OISSA).—PPI