Pakistan missed a golden chance to sail into the Hockey World Cup on Saturday, when they lost to South Korea in the final of the Asia Cup. As a result, the national side will now have to fight through the qualification stage to make it to the World Cup.
A number of former hockey stars, including Sohail Abbas, Waseem Ahmed, Zeeshan Ashraf were reintroduced to the side in a bid to strengthen the side and improve its performance. While the move resulted in better showing, it highlighted the fact that the young crop of hockey players have failed to grind out wins.
Do you think the Pakistan Hockey Federation should keep the experienced, out-of-retirement players (Sohail Abbas, Waseem Ahmed) in the side or continue promoting young players in order a build a team for the future?
The US Hockey Team didn’t come out on top but we sure played good !
Congratulations?
I think the younger players should gain from the experience of the older players playing alongside them. The tricks of the trade should be passed across to the younger ones and once they have notably learned them, the older players should be given a formal departure with lots of praise. Pakistan Hockey has the talent to climb back up again and time will prove that.
Pakistan should hold a Hockey League on regular basis. Cricket is not having one of the best periods of its glory in Pakistan so it is the best chance for the hockey boys to shine and grab some attention. It is infact a golden moment for the revival of the dying sport in a country which has lost everything that reflected its glory.
In my opinion we should have held Pakistan Super Hockey League more consistently with teams representing cities rather than Provinces. Surely it would have kept interest in the youth. But as i see now the future of Pakistan hockey is bleak & gloomy.
Winning is never got by golden spoon-fed guys. All successes come from field, from streets and from common folks. We have to develop sportmanship on national basis. And go to gross root levels and some reals gold will automatically screened out
Hockey has lost its touch. Its time to finish this game and disband this team and spend the same resources on other games.
no team in the world can fight untill having a good leadership.secondly no leader can motivate a team with out their internal motivation.Ther was a time when players were fighting for the country, but today for money,that is not enough for them.so if you want to catch the bird then show him some food in the net.
I feel young and old combination is very good but once a player gets the retirement i feel we should go with the new one, our planning should create a backup force before the retirement so we never feel weakness for that specific position so a lot depend on the federation
I think it is always better to group the inexperience players with experience players. The proper gelling up will result in success. I think PHF should continue while introducing new players slowly and surely. The hockey starts moving in the right direction once the success starts coming up
Yes they should keep experienced players like Sohail Abbas, Waseem Ahmed, Rehan Butt… in the team as combination of seniors and juniors will bring more victories to Pakistan.
Junior players will be groomed this way in better way.
i think pakistan should bring the young players upfront and keep on training them.we should also keep in mind that at what age a player can play with fitness and stamina,this is very important beside if we dont give chance to the younger players,how long the older players will play.Look at the holland team,it looks like they have a factory of players.we have to change the system and keep up with young talented players.Lets start the training from the schools when the boy is around 14years,just the talented kids get the chance not safarshi.
Few years ago, I travelled in central Punjab which is birth place of great hockey players such as Akhtar Rasool, Manzoor-ul- Hasan, Manzoor Junior and many more great hockey legends. It was holiday and a very beautiful day of early winter. There were hundreds of uneven playing fields on both sides of the road. Thousands of young boys were playing a sport called cricket, none of them were playing hockey, which was once played all over rural and urban Punjab. During my three hour travel, I anxiously hoped to see a single hockey match, but nothing was found. Hockey is dead, there is only one game left for youth and that is cricket. There is no incentive or future of hockey players. I am still wondering from where these hockey players come, who take us to victory stand. All praise for them.
Yeah I do:). But our government is not promoting hockey rather just promoting cricket.