Hockey: A Poor Man's Sport
The hockey
players have time and again complained over the shabby treatment which was
meted out to them whenever they succeeded in bringing laurels to this country
in the past
By Muhammad Akram Chohan
There is great concern in the masses over the
recent performances of the
Due to the continuous decline in the standard of
hockey in our country, an ardent hockey lover is thinking on the lines about
what are the real reasons of these poor performances and what should be the
future line of action to rectify the prevailing situation.
If one goes through the affairs of
That's why they are least interested in taking up
this game as a profession. There is no answer to the queries which a youngster
is having regarding his future if he starts playing hockey as a hobby as a first
step.
Hockey, which is our national game, has been
neglected very ruthlessly by not only its federation but it was given lukewarm
response by the government circles too whenever a need had arisen to look into
the affairs of the sport.
The result is that today this beautiful game of
hockey is on the brink of destruction due to infighting among its top hierarchy
and continuous intervention from the government circles just to entertain their
near and dear ones in achieving the top slots for their own sake.
The hockey players have time and again complained
over the shabby treatment which was meted out to them whenever they succeeded
in bringing laurels to this country in the past.
They were never given their due share of respect,
acknowledgement, encouragement and reward in comparison to the players of
cricket who were always in complete contrast to their fellow countrymen as far
as the media and government attention is concerned.
After winning the Austral-Asia Cup in 1986 and the
cricket World Cup in 1992, cricket players were made to feel like prince and
subsequently rewarded with mouth watering cash and other prizes, like
commercial plots in posh areas of the country, whereas the victorious Pakistan
side of the hockey World Cup 1982 could not become the centre of attraction
after its heroic triumph.
They were given plots in return to this
extraordinary performance of theirs in a deserted area of interior Sindh which was really a shameful act on part of the
concerned authorities.
To make matters worse, when the national hockey
team clinched the coveted titles of the Champions Trophy and World Cup in the
same year of 1994, they were once again overlooked by the concerned quarters of
the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF), the Ministry of Sports in particular and
the Government in general.
Due to this behavior, hockey players of that time
came to the conclusion that they have not been treated fairly and thus they
felt really discouraged and dismayed.
It is human nature that one definitely expects
appreciation and acknowledgement after doing anything significant but to the
sheer bad luck of our hockey team, they were never treated in a befitting
manner after making a name for their country.
Due to continuous negligence of the concerned
authorities, an ordinary person stopped taking interest in this game which
becomes evident if one visits any of the matches which the
A common person realised
that this game is not very popular in the corridors of power and that's why
youngsters opted against joining this game as a hobby which is one of the prime
reasons of the decline of game in our country.
One more reason for this poor state of affairs is
that the persons who were taking care of the game, restricted hockey to one
particular region of Gojra in the Faisalsabad
region.
The game of squash also faced the same fate as it
was also restricted to just one area or caste.
Wrestling is also going through the same situation
due to the same reason by keeping this game confined to just one family.
So the need of the hour is that hockey should be
taken cared of by serious technocrats with a team of professional having a deep
inside desire for the revival of this national game which is unfortunately in
the hands of feudals, who know just to safeguard his
personal benefit and ego thus making the PHF a laughing stock in the world
hockey fraternity.
The game should be commercialised
gradually for the masses and the youngsters' interest so the players and common
man could come to watch/play the game accordingly.
It has been observed that today when a youngster
starts playing cricket, he faces least opposition from his parents in
comparison to yesteryear as the parents have realised
that if their son succeeds in even playing domestic cricket, his future is
secure as he would get a decent job in return for his services as a cricket
playing professional.
In addition to this, two or three years later he
would definitely be in the line for the English cricket leagues just
strengthening his financial status.
This should be applied in hockey too so the parents
never discourage their sons in taking up this game as a profession, then we
would be able to set dreams in our eyes for the revival of this game in the
near future otherwise the game will definitely face the same situation as is
the case with squash, wrestling,snooker
and tennis these days in our country.
Courtesy: The News