The year 1994, exactly 30 years ago today, is a year in the history of Pakistani sports that has no precedents before or since. This year, Pakistan was the world champion of not just two, but four sports. Among these sports are cricket, Hockeysquash and Snooker are included. Today we are introducing you to one of them, Shehbaz Sr., the former captain of the champion hockey team that won the World Cup in 1994.
The captain of the hockey team that won the World Cup in 1994, Shehbaz Ahmed Sr., while talking to Independent Urdu, said that ‘Pakistan’s national game is hockey and we maintained the rule over this game for many decades. But then with time the invincible team was not even able to qualify for the competitions.’
What is the reason for this decline? In response to this question, Shahbaz Sr. said, ‘The biggest role in this 25-30-year journey of hockey’s decline is the lack of attention of the government and the lack of interest of the sports associations. Apart from this, the playing rate of hockey in schools and colleges decreased and nursery became non-existent.
“Hockey players, like other sports, stopped getting facilities, due to which the youth did not associate this sport with their future, despite the financial difficulties.”
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Shahbaz Ahmed said that ‘the passion (passion) of hockey is not there anymore in the whole of Pakistan. There are few areas left which are Pir Mahalla, Toba Tek Singh, Gujra, Faisalabad, there are few areas of KP where hockey is played. Efforts should be made to find talent from these areas.’
Second, the government also reduced the focus on sports. Funds reduced, players did not get contracts, departments stopped recruitment on sports quota.
The former hockey captain said that ‘apart from all these difficulties, coaches were also not available, which made it difficult to highlight the talents of young players. In the country food As the quality of education continued to decline, physical fitness also became a test. Even pure milk is not available in most areas of Pakistan, due to the increase in the use of junk food and market food, the physical stamina of the players has not been equal to the international competition or even the Asian competitions.
Shahbaz Sr. said that the graph of children’s physical development has also fallen due to the unnecessary use of modern devices, mobiles and laptops. Along with this came the lack of modern techniques and facilities for hockey players. The lack of special shoes and training to play on the astro turf brought down the team’s performance.’
According to Shehbaz Senior, ‘no government or institution has shown seriousness in working for the improvement of hockey in the country. This behavior made star players like us very disappointed. That the flag which we used to wave at the top of the world is not seen in any hand today in any competition.’
“August 14 is Pakistan’s Independence Day, instead of making claims of loyalty, we should make a practical commitment that we will play our role honestly for the betterment of our country.”
The rise and fall of Pakistan’s hockey
Since the establishment of Pakistan, the status of national sport has been given to hockey, and Pakistan’s hockey team from the beginning, despite the country’s conditions not improving, celebrated its skills all over the world.
Pakistani hockey team has won the most World Cups in international competitions three times while in Asia it has been the Asian champion eight times.
Pakistan hockey team won the first World Cup in 1978, the second in 1980 and the third time in 1994.
Apart from this, the Green Shirts lost the final seven times in the World Cup competitions and finished third only seven times.
Pakistan was able to crown the Asian champions for the eighth time in the Asia Cup. The first cup in Asian competitions was 1958, then 1962, 1970, then 1974, then 1978, similarly, after 1982, 1990 and 2001, the last time it was declared the winner in these competitions.
This is the best performance by any team in the Asian Games. Lost the finals twice and came third three times.
Neighboring country India has won the Hockey World Cup only once, similarly other teams of the world also saw the rule of Pakistani Shaheens for many years.
The Pakistani hockey team has been on a downward spiral since last winning the Pakistan World Cup in 1994. Now the situation is that, like other global or Asian competitions, for the last several years, the Olympics are not able to make a place to participate in the competitions.
#passion #hockey #fell #Shahbaz
2024-08-14 03:54:47
