With the world renowned Dutch hockey coach Michel van den Heuvel at the helm, team Pakistan seems to be on the right track. The recently concluded European tour served as a testing ground to find a formidable combination for next year’s London Olympics. During the month-long tour, the team geared itself to face challenges that will help it compete under new playing conditions and asses its capabilities and shortcomings.

Since foreign teams are unwilling to visit Pakistan due to security reasons, the PHF, with former Olympian fullback Qasim Zia as the president, worked out this competition and training programme for the team. It is believed that Heuvel assisted in materialising the plan which included short training programme in the Netherlands. The team was a combination of experience and youth and the 18-member squad boasted of seasoned campaigners like Waseem Ahmed, Sohail Abbas, Salman Akbar (goal-keeper), Shakeel Abbasi and Salman Butt, besides others.

As was expected, Pakistan won the four-nation Dublin tournament involving France, China and hosts Ireland; but this was not a big event. The second leg of the tour of the Netherlands turned out to be far more demanding as it involved stronger opponents like Germany, England and the hosts.

After a 2-2 draw against England and a 2-1 loss against Germany despite a great fight, team Pakistan was outclassed by the Netherlands with 0-4.Later, the green shirts secured a comfortable 4-1 win against New Zealand. It was a test match in Amstelveen followed by two series against Belgium where Pakistan’s performance was quite disappointing.

Later, the players’ performance improved against the formidable Netherlands. After a closely contested 2-2 draw, the Netherlands eventually won the test with1-2, even though they had to fight for it.

Heuvel, aged 47, whose two-year contract ends after the 2012 London Olympics, has completed the first year successfully and during this period Pakistan’s performance had been commendable raising hopes that the team now stands a chance in the Olympics, particularly after winning the Asian Games title that earned them a direct place in London Olympics.

Pakistan also reached the final of the seven-nation Sultan Azlan Shah tournament, contested on the single league basis in Ipoh, Malaysia, and lost to 2008 Beijing Olympic champions Australia who netted the golden goal in the second half of the extra time (Pakistan had suffered 1-5 defeat against the champions in the league match). This reflects a marked improvement in the team’s performance, and the credit goes to the excellent game plan by the Dutch coach.

The public is keen to know how far Pakistan has achieved the target of rebuilding. The feedback should come from Heuvel, who is more technically sound, rather than the team manager. Moreover, it would be much better if the coach becomes the spokesperson of the team’s performance since this practice is observed by almost all the countries, not only in hockey, but in other games as well.