Hockey gold

There isn’t much reason to celebrate Pakistan’s third-place finish on Tuesday in the South Asian Games in India. As expected, the host country won the lion’s share of the medals with Sri Lanka finishing second on the leader-board. Pakistan limped to a distant third place just ahead of Bangladesh, Nepal and Afghanistan. Though not unexpected, Pakistan’s dismal show in the regional extravaganza held in the Indian state of Assam should come as yet another eye-opener for the country’s sports chiefs, who have been busy in an ugly power tussle in recent years. Things would have been much worse for Pakistan but its spirited hockey players saved the country some blushes. In what was the showpiece event of the games, Pakistan silenced a packed home crowd in Guwahati, Assam’s largest city, by beating India 1-0 in the hockey final. It was Pakistan’s second win in the event against the hosts and helped them earn some kind of bragging rights after a series of below-par showings in track and field events and boxing.

The hockey gold is good news for a country that is finally getting serious in reviving the fortunes of its national sport. Over the years hockey has suffered because of incompetent and even corrupt officials as well as a lack of public and private support. But a recent change in the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) setup seems to have reinvigorated the campaign to lift Pakistan hockey out of its current crisis. The new PHF management seems more committed than its predecessors and its showing. Before this success in India, Pakistan managed to make the cut for the Junior World Cup despite all odds. These are small yet much-needed achievements which can slowly but surely put Pakistan hockey in the right direction. The government has rightly resumed providing financial support to Pakistan hockey. The onus is now on the PHF to use these precious funds in all the right areas because that is the only way to ensure that the current management will succeed where others failed in the past. Pakistan’s goal should be to win back its place among the top hockey-playing nations of the world. It’s a tough goal but considering the country’s glorious past and the fact that it still has a reasonably rich talent base, it’s not too far-fetched.