Hockey heartbreak

How Pakistan actually played will be anyone’s guess as the tournament was not broadcast in Pakistan.

A sorry tale of confusion, mystification and cover-up was on show when Pakistan’s hockey squad for the inaugural Asian Champions Trophy was announced just over three weeks ago.

There was shock with the seniors’ omission: raw talent was preferred over experience for an event that could, once again, stamp Pakistan’s supremacy in a sport where they once were better than the rest of the competition. The reasons ranged from testing bench-strength to giving the seniors a much-needed break before important assignments. However, disciplinary issues pertaining to an earlier, largely unsuccessful, tour of Europe crept into the team selection as well, ensuring preparations got off to a  less-than-ideal start. There was also uncertainty in the camp: the manager, and perhaps the nation, wanted gold but the captain was merely looking for an ideal combination that the team could employ in the future. This is strange not because lifting the trophy would give the sort of boost that forms future winners but also because Mohammad Imran, fully aware of the captaincy cycle that has dogged sports in Pakistan, may give away to Zeeshan Ashraf when the latter decides to step out of his self-imposed exile. The coach does not talk much, so we are unlikely to know what his plans were. But as the days grew shorter, so did the team’s management patience with youth and experimentation. A shock defeat to Japan swiftly signalled an end to the testing and the need to prepare the youngsters for sterner tests that await them was put off for another day.

On the eve of the final on September 11, former Pakistan captain Rehan Butt, one of the omitted seniors, predicted that the result would be decided on penalty strokes. While he foresaw half the show correctly, the result, according to Butt, told a sweeter ending for the Greenshirts. This, unfortunately was not to be. How Pakistan actually played will be anyone’s guess for neither our state-owned channel nor our solitary sports channel deemed it important enough to telecast the tournament or even the final.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 14^th,  2011.