Hockey players dislike hiring cricketers for commentary

KARACHI: Hockey experts have expressed disappointment over the hiring of cricketers for commentary on the all-important pool match between Pakistan and India in World Hockey League on Friday (today) at Antwerp, Belgium.
An Indian TV channel has rolled out a pre-match commercial featuring former India cricket captain Kapil Dev and Pakistan’s former fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar, both carrying hockey sticks.
The match between the arch-rivals is expected to attract tens of millions of viewers across the globe.
Experts said they failed to understand why the legends of hockey of both countries were not asked to perform the job and why cricketers have been invited for a hockey match which is one of the most interesting ones in the year.
They said that due to the extraordinary domination of cricket in the Indian Subcontinent, the other games were being neglected and not given due importance.
India are eight times Olympic champions and Pakistan have won the Olympics thrice and World Cup four times.
Besides, dozens of other trophies and championships have been won by the two countries.
“It would be better if hockey stalwarts were invited for commentary on the match because they are the ones who know the nitty-gritty of the game,” said Olympian Islahuddin, considered the fastest forward of his time.
He said that both countries have produced a number of great hockey players who are still alive and have well-formed opinions about the two teams’ strengths and weaknesses.
Islah, captain of Pakistan’s World Cup-winning team in 1978, said Kapil and Shoaib were sports heroes but as a former player he believed that it would be better if hockey greats of the two countries were hired for commentary.
He suggested a number of former greats, including Ajit Paul Singh, Surjeet Singh, Ashok Kumar, Fernandez, Zafar Iqbal, Muhammad Shahid, Dhanraj Pillay in India and Khaild Mehmood, Samiullah, Hasan Sardar, Manzoor Junior, Rasheed Junior in Pakistan.
Islah said the India-Pakistan match in the qualifying round would be the most widely viewed match at the event.
On the other hand, some people said that cricketers were invited to commentate in order to popularise the game of hockey in the Subcontinent once again.
They said when cricketers would comment on the match people would see the match.
Pakistan and India have had a great rivalry in hockey. For a long period, they were the top two teams in the world of hockey.
Although both countries had good cricket teams, in hockey they were considered giants.
The last time India and Pakistan met on a hockey field was in Champions Trophy 2014 in Bhubaneswar. Pakistan won the match 4-3, but the occasion was marred by obscene gestures by a few Pakistan players. The Green-shirts went on to clinch silver medal, losing to Germany in the final.