Pak Hockey's Lost Glory

'Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall'

By Syed Naveed Abbas

The vibrant and living days of hockey are long gone. The glorious past is now an eyewash. The celebrity status of our shining team when most members occupied centrestage in the collective attention of the fans has evaporated. Fostering excellence and the aim to make hockey a game for everyone is visibly omitted.

Intellectual poverty to uphold hockey as a specialised subject is on the rise. The turbulent hockey landscape is reflecting blistering and sweltering expectations. The best practices document is no more.

The Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) is lacking the core vision statement to encourage, promote, develop and administer hockey at all levels in order to maintain Pakistan hockey as a world leader and a game for everyone. The PHF envelopes a hopeless setup and makes a mountain of a molehill.

It shows that even after a long time, we have miserably failed to abide by professional norms that preclude abuse of arbitrary history. It is high time to restructure the organisation in general and revamp the individuals in particular.

An organisational paradigm shift is the need of the hour. The PHF policy document is a vivacious one that determines the future direction of the hockey and measures the present, provided there is a respect for the document. The million dollar question flickers: Is the PHF ready to deliver?

Hockey is the national game of Pakistan but it rarely seems to stir any chords of interest with the general public. It seems to have lost all its charisma and charm of bygone days. What baffles one is that the professional and unconditional commitment of PHF is incredulously lost and no visible conscious efforts are made to turn the table up. The rigorous training and development programs to uplift and uphold the international hockey standards are not found in the culture of Pakistan Hockey. Famine of leadership has become the hallmark of our national sports.

The captain is the man who makes a difference and we are unable to produce a consistent captain who can run the team as a leader in a real professional stance -- a competent skipper who can deliver like a captain and share technical hockey skills; like dribbling and elimination, delivering and distributing the ball, receiving and controlling the ball, tackling and dispossessions, other techniques, significance of physical fitness, importance of discipline etc and above all a leading ability.

A strong captain with all the above capabilities can emerge as a winner. This is PHF's responsibility to pronounce the vision for hockey and its strategic direction. The undisputed champs had won the World Hockey Cup in four of 11 attempts, the Champions Trophy three times and the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup on different occasions (pardon me if any statistics are missed -- the idea is to highlight the Pakistan hockey team as the champion of the champions once upon a time).

Not only this, Pakistan won three gold, three silver and two bronze medals for field hockey in the Olympics. Pakistan hockey achieved its pinnacle in the mid 1980s but since then it has slipped downhill. As things stand at the present, the national team holds no major title.

Historians and general public are bewildered as day by day the PHF is wangling with unnecessary performance decline and agonising depression and has failed to undo the defeats of performers. What are the reasons for the decline? To start with, apparently no vision and no mission statement are available to give the strategic direction to the team.

The Pakistan Hockey Federation is run by unprofessional individuals. Decision makers are not equipped with the technical know-how of the modern game. Seemingly, funds are not utilised appropriately. The PHF is lacking visionary leadership that holds the sinking ship. How laborious.

Pakistani hockey officials lack all the necessary training required to guide the talent in the right direction. Hockey is no longer a part-time game but a sport that requires total and unconditional commitment both inside and outside the ground. It requires years of planning and use of state of the art equipment to train the players. Our hockey federation cannot comprehend the requirements of the modern-day game.

Witnessing another major problem in the arena of hockey in Pakistan is the lack of good quality Astroturf (a champion sports surface) pitches. Access to such grounds is not possible for many players at the local level. If the players are unable to play frequently on Astroturf then I am afraid they won't be able to deliver in international events.

Measuring the need of such grounds is a significant task and that should be done on a regular basis. To find and deploy able trainers on an Astroturf surface is the key requirement. In Pakistan most of the pros use synthetic surfaces once their technique of playing on our uneven grounds has already matured.

Hockey has also been fading from our TV screens. This problem is evident in Pakistan where a responsible media should actively promote healthy activities and the country's national sport.

Jamie Stewart, Managing Director, Commune, FIH, says "I think hockey has the stars. And potentially the marketers have to position the next generation of hockey stars in an attractive fashion. We need to build those stars. But those stars will be treated out of success. So the most important thing is to get the structures in place, the programmes in.

"Let's face it -- this is not going to happen tomorrow. It's not like putting band-aid on a sore. The whole architecture of the way the sport is run and administered needs to be re-constructed."

With hockey no longer a priority sport in the government list, the indifference of the sponsors and the media could really hit hard. This was a time not long ago when flying horse Samiullah was the darling of the press. Now you would struggle to find people who can name the Pakistani hockey captain.

The future of field hockey in Pakistan is bleak. Bold efforts are needed by those who are in charge of the game. If we want our younger generation to indulge in this beautiful game we have to carve out our game plan very carefully. We should maintain the winner profile and regain the lost glory.

It is worth mentioning here that 12th Men's Hockey World Cup will be staged at New Delhi in India. The fortnight-long gala will in principle be held in February 2010 at the Major Dhyan Chand National Hockey Stadium wherein the world's top 12 nations will take part. The Hockey World Cup was first held in Barcelona, Spain, in 1971, when Pakistan won the title.

A piece of advice to Pakistan Hockey Federation and the Government of Pakistan:

"Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall."

Best of luck for the series of upcoming events like the long drawn out European tour and then the mighty event of the Beijing Olympics. Let's move with wisdom and make things happen!

Courtesy: The News Pakistan