Though not entirely unexpected, the national team’s 1-5 drubbing at the hands of old rivals India in a round-robin game of the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup came as a rude shock for all those hoping for a Pakistan hockey revival.

It was a must-win game for Pakistan in the Malaysian city of Ipoh for a variety of reasons. A victory would have kept Pakistan alive in the race for a place in the final. Perhaps more importantly, a win against India would have boosted the team’s morale at a time when it was short on confidence. But instead of rising to the occasion, Pakistan crumbled under pressure as the Indians recorded a big victory to stay alive in the seven-nation tournament.

The defeat against India wasn’t the only low point for the Pakistanis in the event in which they had to settle for a place in the play-off for the fifth position against Canada. They even lost to hosts Malaysia after falling to New Zealand and Australia.

But such results aren’t really surprising considering that Pakistan have failed to impress much in international hockey tournaments during the last ten to 12 years.

I still remember that back in 2004, Pakistan weren’t ranked among the top teams but were showing signs of a possible revival. With Dutch master coach Roelant Oltmans at the helm, Pakistan were doing considerably well on the international arena. They almost made it to the semi-finals of the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens and then went on to win a bronze at the Champions Trophy in Lahore that year. Such performances were a far cry from Pakistan’s glory days but still they gave a Pakistan hockey fan some hope.

At that time it seemed that with sustained effort, Pakistan could catch up with top teams like Australia, Netherlands and Germany in the coming years.

Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. Due to one reason or the other, Pakistan hockey slumped and today our team can’t even beat Malaysia and gets a tough times against minnows like Japan and Canada.

There has been a lot of talk about what measures can the country’s hockey authorities can take to reverse the decline. The current chiefs of the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) are promising several short and long-term steps to revive the fortunes of Pakistan hockey.

It isn’t anything new. Former PHF chiefs also made similar promises in the past and even took a series of measures to put Pakistan hockey back on the victory path. But all of them failed.

The problem with Pakistan hockey is that the authorities have mostly tried to achieve short-term gains. They did take a few long-term steps as well but most of them were half-baked, ill-planned projects that failed to achieve desired results. In addition, many former PHF officials treated projects like the establishment of academies as means to make money which is why they were doomed to fail right from the very start.

A series of bad decisions post-2004 have also contributed towards the decline. We have tried with several home-grown coaches after dumping Oltmans but with little success.

Meanwhile, the Indians roped in Oltmans for their development programme and now the Dutchman is their national coach.

Watching Oltmans pumping his fist in celebration after India steamrolled his former charges in Ipoh, I wondered whether Pakistan’s fate would be different had we persisted with him or had opted for another foreign coach rather than going for local choices.

Surely, professionals like Oltmans would have taken Pakistan hockey ahead. That’s why I believe that if our hockey authorities can afford it, they should hire a top-class foreign coach for at least three years.

I have nothing against local coaches. Most of them were world-class players in their heyday and have shown promise in their new careers. But despite that they lag behind master coaches like Oltmans. This is because over the years, hockey has followed in the footsteps of football and has evolved into a sport where power and precision rank above skill and flair. There is certainly still room for individual brilliance as talismanic players like Messi or Shehbaz Ahmed often prove. But such players are rare and for a team to win regularly it has to play as a team with each member contributing to the common cause. To make sure that the team is well-drilled and well-oiled and can perform like a unit, a good coach is a must. The hockey field is now like a chessboard where fast-paced action takes place. Following a series of rule changes, hockey has become a different sport than it was in the past. The coach has to come out with a flexible game plan and has to make sure that that the players are utilized in the best possible manner. He has to be at the top of the game even when the team is two, three or even four goals down.

Frankly, I don’t see that any of our local coaches can perform such a role especially in high-pressure game against top teams. What we should do is get a good foreign coach and put our best coaches in his support staff. They should get trained.

Pakistan’s below-par showing in the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup is yet another reminder of the fact that our team lags far behind top sides in all areas of the game which means that superficial measures won’t work.

We will have to go back to the drawing board and look for ways and means to lift the team. Apart from having a good coach, we also need physical trainers because fitness is another key area which needs immediate improvement. It was quite visible that Pakistan’s players struggled to keep up with the pace of the game in the last couple of quarters in almost all their matches in Ipoh.

There is also a lot of politics when it comes to team selection but that’s a topic which we will talk about some other time. For the moment, we should make sure that the team learns from its mistakes and concrete efforts are made to overcome our various weaknesses.