Gold diggers

Pakistan hockey becomes the victim of its own successes and glory days… again

The seven-nil mauling at the hands of the Kookaburras that eradicated Pakistan’s hopes of a semifinal berth in the Olympic Games Men’s Hockey event on Tuesday, has resulted in another clamor for wholesale changes in the PHF (Pakistan Hockey Federation) and is being cited as yet another ‘funeral’ of Pakistan hockey. If kneejerk reactions were a sport, we’d be a shoo-in for gold at the Olympics at every single event; and if conjuring inflated expectations were another, we’d bully every other country out of the ballpark! Every single time a Pakistani team takes to the field, we encumber them with such expectations that – more often than not – the poor souls capitulate like a house of cards. And as far as this burden of delusion is concerned, no one has fallen prey to overblown expectations more than our hockey team.

Before the Games began, the nation was expecting at least a podium finish, if not the Gold Medal. And it did make perfect sense since hockey is our national sport, we’re ranked as high as 8th in the world and Pakistan was the undisputed king of the sport when Homo habilis were mulling over evolving into Homo erectus. That, coupled with the multitude of prayer mats laid out in Ramadan meant that we weren’t really giving any other nation a sniff.

Pre-Olympic friendly matches were a reality check, which confirmed that Pakistan hockey team was the “worst sports team in the history of the universe” and then it was almost as if no one really cared about the actual Games anymore. With no hoopla and no exaggerated media hype, Pakistan started their Olympic campaign in a spirited fashion against Spain, where they were unlucky not to have gotten more than a 1-1 draw; after which, the Gold was virtually in our pocket again. The delusion was further fueled after another clinical performance against Argentina, as our defense looked as sturdy as it has looked since the mid 1990s. And then, ladies and gentlemen, we redefined the term ‘blowing things out of proportions’ as the nation awaited the ‘Ramadan gift’ from the Men in Green against Great Britain. That wasn’t to be, and then after a 4-1 defeat Pakistan was back to being the worst in the universe’s history.

The thrilling finish against South Africa meant that the Gold was back in our pocket again, with the small matter of a win against the world’s top ranked side – that also happens to be the World Champions, and a team that we have only beaten once in the last eight years – away from cementing our place in the final four. Massive expectations, capitulation, you know the rest of the story…

Being optimistic about the team you support is one thing, but to believe that it’s your team’s divine right to rule the world just because they ruled the roost ages ago is not only delusional, it puts undue pressure on them who then fail to even live up to their potential, let alone the unreasonable expectations. Many a sports team has suffered due to combination of decorated history and insatiable fans.

The New York Yankees suffered in the Mattingly era in the 1980s and 1990s; being the most successful MLB side in history took its toll that resulted in the franchise being absent from the playoffs for the longest time since 1921. Liverpool FC, haven’t won the English league title since 1990 as the Anfield faithful still continue to peer into the 1980s archives, justifying their domination over England in antediluvian times as the rationale for expecting their side to roll everyone over in the 21st century. Liverpool fans’ annual “this will be our year” chant is akin to Pakistan hockey fans’ clatter every time a major global event is around the corner.

Expecting a side ranked 8th in the world to blaze its way toward the gold, not only manifests the gold digging, glory hunting nature of the fans, it prevents the team from actually improving. One needs to applaud the mid-table finishes initially, acknowledge the strengths, work on the weaknesses and then expect progress towards the top. If we scream bloody murder and cry for a revamp every time the team fails to finish at the podium, we’d continue to skirt the periphery of our potential, which has been the case for the last 18 years.

What the Yankees did – something that every team that suffers from gold digging fans should do – was this: they carved out a new dynasty that was founded upon a new breed of players and redefined their goals. The fans that never settled for anything less than a World Series triumph initially, gradually began accepting early playoff exists, which gradually stabilized matters and the Yankees began penetrating deeper into the playoffs before a new empire was created in the late 1990s. Maybe Pakistan hockey should take cue from the Yanks and be patient, inject youth into the side, allowing them room for initial ‘failures’ to give them a chance to finally complete this much protracted transition to the top – or at least somewhere thereabout.

The writer is a staff member and can be reached at [email protected]