Another bad decision on part of PHF

ISLAMABAD: Yet another tournament and yet another bad decision on the part of Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF).

If not honouring the offer to compete in the high profile Azlan Shah Hockey was a poor decision by all means, accepting the offer to compete against minnows of the game was yet another short-sighted step.

With 17th ranked Japan and 31st ranked Oman the other two teams in the tri-nation starting from Wednesday, one wonders what kind of mileage Pakistan would get in flexing their muscles against low ranked teams. Definitely it would be a good gain for the teams like Japan and Oman to play comparatively high ranked Pakistan it is nothing more than wasting time and finances for greenshirts.

On the contrary it would have been far better a step to send the team to Malaysia to play against teams that stay in pursuit of excellence by taking the game seriously. Pakistan has officially refused to compete in the yearly event reducing Azlan Shah to a six-team international tournament with world No 1 Australia leading the field. World No 2 Argentina, India (No 6), England (No 7), Ireland (No 10) and hosts Malaysia (world No 12) are also set to make Azlan Shah a dress rehearsal for forthcoming Commonwealth Games.

All participating teams barring Argentina are using the Azlan Shah Hockey as a platform to prepare team for the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games to be held from April 4-15. The PHF thus spoiled a golden opportunity to play against the best teams and remove their rusty flaws before all important Commonwealth Games. The PHF did the same when two years back, the team was invited to play the penultimate Champions Trophy held in London considering former great Air Marshal Nur Khan’s services for the event.

Pakistan refused to compete in the Trophy and later in the Junior Asia Cup with the fear that greenshirts would go on to lose every match. That fear continues to haunt the PHF even today as yet again the federation ignored the urgency of matter by failing to make the team ready for the 27th edition of the Azlan Shah Cup.

By preferring to play against minnows in tri-nation even in Oman, the federation itself has accepted that it has lost faith in team and its management.

The PHF incumbents are no new in the office. They are there for the last almost two and half years and took over the federation when the team was ranked 6 or 7. In 27 months time, the ranking has slipped to all time low with no hope in the offing for any better future.

The biggest flaw in the sissy-like decision making PHF abilities is the one to shy away from facing the best around. Such an attitude is nothing more than the attitude of a bird that hides his face in sand believing that he is invisible to outer world, knowing little that his whole bulk is there for everyone to see.

The PHF position is more or less the same. The fear of playing against good teams continues to haunt the federation while at the same time whenever PHF gets opportunity to play against minnows or to figure in exhibition matches, it looks ready to do that believing that beating lowly teams would earn them praise from those who know little about the game. Such an attitude has already dealt an unbearable blow to country’s Pakistan hockey standard.

The only criteria to judge in which direction a particular game is moving is to see the improvement in national team performance. People may forget and forgive you for financial irregularities but no one would accept any excuse of the federation if the team continues to play bad hockey or performs poorly against teams which have name and ranking. Playing against minnows like Oman and Japan only means the administration has lost believe or faith in team and even is not serious to make nation outfit formidable for recognized internationals.

Not being able to play against the leading teams around the world also shows limited PR abilities of PHF officials with outer world. After series of poor shows in FIH recognizes events, now all eyes are focused on green shirts Commonwealth Games performance. An unprepared or non-serious approach would definitely hurt Pakistan chances in the Games.