Hockey grounds established in the federal capital are lacking in maintenance and are being mostly used as cricket grounds, much to the chagrin of hockey lovers who are seeing the development as a demise of the national sport hockey.
The Hockey grounds are present in almost every sector, school and college of the capital but unluckily they have no maintenance, changing rooms, watering facilities, or a proper pavilion or fencing to protect them from encroachments.
The Islamabad Hockey Association (IHA) is not working properly for the advancement of Hockey. Some people are of the view that the President and Secretary of IHA have lackadaisical attitude that is resulting in fall down of hockey.
As regards the apathy of successive administrators towards maintenance of grounds, one just has to look at the so called Hockey ground Sitara Market (G-7 Markaz) which has been converted into a cricket ground. The youth come here every evening and play tape ball cricket.
A total of 18 clubs are associated with IHA that have right to play in tournaments but practically speaking almost half of the clubs do not exist properly except in documents.
The other half of the Hockey clubs associated with IHA are placed in rural areas of the capital, namely; Shahbaz Hockey Club Kurri, NIH Linons, Janbaz Hockey Club Kurri, Chohan Club, Rawal Club, Qadeer Hockey Club and Kirpa Hockey Club do not have adequate facilities. While the players of Qadeer Hockey Club, Shahbaz Hockey Club, NIH Hockey Club and Rawal Hockey Club regularly practice despite the fact that these clubs have less facilities. Only Qadeer Hockey Club has a good quality ground where players of two clubs practice regularly
The Hockey clubs that are placed in urban areas of the capital, namely; Al-Faisal Hockey Club, Nishtar Hockey Club, Margalla Hockey Club, Islamabad Tigers Club, Al-Abbas Club, Rising Stars Club and Al-Mujahid Hockey Club. The busiest club is Al-Faisal Hockey Club that has ground in Aabpara, but the players of this club do not practice regularly.
In the early years of its development Islamabad had excellent hockey traditions with the hockey ground near Aabpara being the hub of hockey activity that used to organize tournaments and functions regularly on this ground.
This situation is posing a threat to the development of Hockey in the federal capital. It is important that IHF should pay attentions towards advancement of the national game in Islamabad. If the present circumstances are “satisfactory” for the IHF then the sport is bound to be doomed.
Hockey grounds lack maintenance
