Bajwa says visit of Oman team to help resume international hockey

LAHORE: Secretary Pakistan Hockey federation Asif Bawja said the arrival of Oman hockey team is a ray of hope and a step forward to see the resumption of international hockey in Pakistan.

“We are delighted that the oman team has arrived here to a play five test match series against our development and rising squads,” he told APP on Monday. The touring side will play four matches at Lahore and one at Sheikhupura as a part of its preparatory tour for the Asia confederation hockey cup being played in Bangladesh from October 14.

Bajwa, a former hockey Olympian stressed the need to motivate more foreign teams to visit Pakistan in near future to address the cause of hockey in the country and to put a new life in the dying national sport. “If no international hockey activity is taking place anywhere in our country how can we motivate the youth to play hockey and take it up as a sport,” he questioned. “We have to speed up our efforts at international hockey forums to persuade the foreign teams to visit Pakistan to lend support for the resumption of hockey,” he added.

PHF official said it is imperative in the larger interest of the game in the country to have regular visits of the foreign teams to Pakistan and to expose the young talent to competitive international hockey and to develop a pool of talented players to form national junior and senior teams. “Pakistan has been deprived of international hockey activities for over a past decade owing to security situation and now when the security has improved a lot situation is conducive for the visit of the foreign teams,” said Bajwa. He said the visit of the Oman team is a way of learning for our upcoming players as they will be gaining international experience by playing a foreign team, no matter not at a higher position in Asian ranking.

“At the same time we should not forget the sagging fortune of our national game which nowadays is a dying sport and it a sour reality we are at number seventeen in the world, given the fact that once we were a force to reckon with at international level with the possession of all major hockey title of the world,” said the PHF Secretary. He said it is not easy to ensure the revival of the game in a short span of time as it needs years long focused and dedicated efforts with sheer hard work at grass root level. Asif Bajwa said the present regime of the PHF is striving hard for the revival of the game by taking various measures besides mustering support of the provincial and Federal Governments for the provision of funds to re-launch hockey activities at all level. “We inherited crisis ridden PHF with empty kitty and we have embarked upon a journey to re-establish our hockey at grass root level ,then at national level besides ensuring participation in elite international hockey events,” he said adding “If we do not follow multi dimensional directions we cannot bring back hockey at the road of safety and progess and there is no short cut to achieve this challenging task we are facing, we need to have maximum hockey activities with abundance hockey talent available to help us in regaining lost glory “.