Another turning point

Will Pakistan hockey forget to turn… again?

Pakistan’s third-place finish at the Champions Trophy (CT) in Australia isn’t exactly something that would inspire the screenplay of a big budget sports film. It isn’t likely to feature in the year ending top 10 sporting achievements either or any magazine’s top moments list for 2012. And for a team that has such an inflated trophy cabinet – featuring a record four World Cups and three Olympic gold medals – a seventh bronze medal in a tournament that has seen the side vanquish three gold and six silver medals, is hardly the most glittering of accolades. However, if one puts the national hockey team’s podium finish in Melbourne into context, this is quite possibly Pakistan hockey’s brightest moment for nearly a decade and a half.

The team has won three other CT bronze medals since 1998’s silver in Lahore, in 2002, 2003 and 2004; all three after beating India in the bronze medal match by a single goal, just like on Sunday. And then there was that Asian Games gold medal in Guangzhou in 2010 as well. However, none of those triumphs were as significant as this one in Melbourne can turn out to be.

Following 1994, the last time Pakistan won a gold medal at a global event – the World Cup in Sydney and the CT in Lahore –, Pakistan hockey has been traversing constant decline. And every time the freefall seems like decelerating, you sense there’s a turning point around the corner. Reaching the semifinals in Sydney Olympics 2000 was touted as a turning point; each of the three CT bronze medals between 2002 and 2004 were peddled as a turning point; the gold medal in Guangzhou was supposed to be a turning point and beating Australia for the first time in seven years last year was also flaunted as a turning point. Pakistan hockey hasn’t been devoid of turning points ever since their graph took a nosedive, but every time they tend to locate one, they simply forget to turn.

There are a number of reasons why the podium finish in Melbourne looks more promising than the aforementioned crossroads. For starters, the team of 2002-04 had a backbone of players at their peak. The likes of Sohail Abbas, Waseem Ahmed, Rehan Butt, Zeeshan Ashraf, Dilawar Hussain and Muhammad Saqlain were at their prime – there or thereabouts – and this is quite possibly the best that they could’ve accomplished. While the gold medal Guangzhou was a bit of a false dawn as well, owing to the fall of Asian hockey and the resulting lack of competition.

The current squad has a youthful spine who can build on their success in Melbourne and finally turn the protracted corner. One can only imagine the impact of winning the bronze medal on the likes of Mohammed Rizwan Sr – who pulled Pakistan’s strings in the attacking third and was recognised as one of the best young players of the tournament – and of beating the world’s top ranked side and Olympic champions Germany in the quarterfinals. Granted, the German side rested a lot of their key players for the Champions Trophy but such has been the dearth of notable scalps for Pakistan hockey over the past decade or so, that their quarterfinal victory arguably is the biggest triumph since their 2-0 must-win triumph over Netherlands in their Olympic pool match in 2000, which helped them qualify for the semis – the last time the national side made the final four in either the Olympics or the World Cup.

Another positive has been Shakeel Abbasi’s resurgence towards being one of the best players in the world today. His efforts were duly recognised as the talismanic forward who turned the game on its head with his brace in the quarterfinals and ran the show against India, and was named the Player of the Tournament in Melbourne– the first time a Pakistani has won the award at a major hockey tournament since Shahbaz Ahmed Sr won it in 1994, following the World Cup triumph in Sydney.

Owing to Sohail Abbas’ absence, another notable difference in Pakistan’s play in Melbourne has been shunning their nearly decade-and-a-half old strategy of opting to win a penalty corner in the opposition D every time they penetrate the attacking third, and actually looking to create goal scoring opportunities. One could argue that in terms of creation of chances Pakistan was right up there with the likes of Australia and Netherlands, but their rather lacklustre finishing – possibly the biggest chink in the armour – let them down in crucial moments. Notable examples of missing gilt-edged opportunities were found in their resilient, but profligate, performance in the second half against Australia, and more crucially in their 5-2 defeat at the hands of Netherlands in the semifinal where the only difference between the sides – at least in the attacking play – was the finishing, despite the convincing margin of defeat. And so there is a lot of promise in the current lot that can be groomed to hopefully being world-beaters in the future.

The shadow of the glorious past and the ensuing inflated expectations haunted the previous generation of players, as Pakistan hockey regularly became the victim of its own successes. It’ll take an Olympic or World Cup gold for that shadow to be cleared, but the pressure and scrutiny seems to be gradually easing as the current crop look like being given a chance to steadily climb up the pecking order in world hockey – a luxury, the previous generation did not have.

Being a more global sport than cricket, hockey needs a lot more coverage in Pakistan, something that cricket being a more commercialised sport seems to hog somewhat unfairly – more people followed the domestic T20 event in Lahore than the Champions Trophy. And if one were to factor in international sports, Manchester United’s 3-2 win over Manchester City on Sunday had more viewers in Pakistan than the hockey side’s 3-2 win over India the same day. More sports fans in the country know about Lionel Messi’s record-breaking brace against Real Betis than Shakeel Abbasi’s historic brace against Germany, and I’m pretty sure more sports lovers in Pakistan could name the four tennis major winners from 2012 or the F1 world champion than those who’d be able to tell who the captain of Pakistan hockey side is.

The significance of the Champions Trophy bronze medal can be gauged by Pakistan’s jump in FIH rankings from ninth to fifth. What this young side now needs is the attention and approbation that it deserves, and the patience of the supporters, who tend to open up history books to juxtapose the current performances with those that were conjured in the distant past. Pakistan hockey needs our support and acclaim, if we want it to finally turn the extended corner. Maybe then for every ten kids who want to be the next Shahid Afridi or the next Lionel Messi, you’d have one who’d want to be the next Shakeel Abbasi.

The writer is Editor, Business/City (Karachi), Pakistan Today. Email: [email protected], Twitter: @khuldune