What the bronze at Melbourne means

Winning a bronze medal at the recently-concluded Champions Trophy in Melbourne may have set unrealistic targets for Pakistan’s hockey team in that each time there is a tournament, the team shouldn’t return home empty-handed. Despite the podium finish — in a tournament where Pakistan lost half their matches — the sport is in a dismal state in the country. Nonetheless, the team, once the world’s best, finds itself back in the top-five after falling to ninth in the world rankings.

Prior to Melbourne, Pakistan’s last Champions Trophy medal came in 2004 — a bronze at home. Since that tournament in Lahore, the team finished fifth in 2005 and 2006, seventh in 2007 and 2011 and failed to qualify for the trophy from 2008 to 2010. Their last World Cup appearance, in 2010, brought the Greenshirts their all-time lowest finish — last — in the 12-team competition.

Pakistan failed to qualify for this year’s Champion’s Trophy and only made it to the eight-team contest courtesy a wild card. They progressed to the quarter-finals after winning just one of their three group matches. The Greenshirts produced a magical display against Olympic champions Germany to be in contention for the medals but it was the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) officials’ bhangra attitude that came as a surprise.

The PHF seems to have overlooked all that has preceded — even as recent as the Summer Olympics — and forgotten that a single win does not mean a revival of the sport that the PHF itself had left to rot. PHF officials need to stop revelling and work on improving the system by replacing the seniors past their prime.

Looking at the future, the PHF needs to bring back a selection committee. The tournament statistics from Melbourne should also help the officials work on removing weaknesses. In six matches, Pakistan scored 10 and conceded 12 goals. Shakeel Abbasi managed to score important goals and bag the player-of-the-tournament award but even by his admission, failed to convert many more. Pakistan’s defence improved manifold as the tournament progressed but counter-attacks usually failed to pay dividends given a lack of ideas and creativity. Goalkeeping woes continued in Melbourne just as they did in London and penalty corners no longer seem to be a threat for the opposition.

The bronze needs to be used as a ladder to reach for the silver, not as a blindfold to the wooden spoons of the recent past. Academies and coaching at home have failed to help the players outrun and outwit the Europeans. Either invest in foreign coaches who can help replicate the game-play that the Germans, Dutch or the Australians have adapted, or send players abroad for regular training. The PHF has often refused to give an NOC for playing in foreign leagues, depriving even seniors of valuable interaction with the world’s best players in non-Subcontinent conditions. Investment needs to be made in the sport — central contracts need to be handed out more regularly and budding players must be offered a sum that they can survive on.

December 20 marks the start of another tournament for the Greenshirts — the 2012 Asian Champions Trophy. Pakistan topped the round-robin in last year’s inaugural edition only to be beaten to gold on penalties by India. A step up this time will round off the year in style but it will be the performance on the astro turf that will tell whether the shots have hit the board or not.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 20^th, 2012.