And You Call Hockey “Our National Game”

IT is our designated National Game. It is the only sport to land golds and silvers at the Olympics for Pakistan. Only a few months back when the gold medal at the Asiad was won, it was country’s first hockey title win after a hiatus of 16 years. Winning the Asian games also gave an automatic Olympic qualification. Most probably it would be the only genuine representation other than the wild card entries. On top of it, hockey still brings the only genuine, though an outside chance, of an Olympic medal.

After the triumph at the Guangzhou Asian games, the first assignment was the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup.

The invitational tournament figured six of world’s top 10 teams including Australia, the reigning world champions. The green shirts’ journey was a real thriller. They won the first two matches against New Zealand and South Korea, both rated above them. Lost narrowly to the 4th ranked Great Britain and when they went down 1-5 to the Aussies, it seemed the recent history was haunting again. But the boys showed great resolve and won the next two ties: against India, having lost all the four previous encounters, and Malaysia. Hence, they made it into the final to face the mighty Australia again. Most were anticipating a one sided show akin to one in the league but Pakistanis astonished everyone and totally matched their opponents. Twice they came back to equalize and took the final to the extra time where they lost via the golden goal.

The most disappointing and annoying factor was that the nation was deprived the pleasure of watching the resurgent Pakistan as no channel beamed any of the matches including the final. This is how the country’s national sport is treated. It is even more unfortunate as the chief patron of PHF is the chief executive of the country i.e. Prime Minister. Then recently the omnipresent interior minister has been made the patron of PHF. The president of PHF is also no small political fish. Qasim Zia is not only a member of the Punjab assembly but also a member of the all powerful Central Executive Committee of the ruling Pakistan People’s Party.

South American nation Chile has never been among the top soccer nations; they didn’t even manage to qualify for most of the World Cups. The country had two great players in the last years of the last century, Ivan Zamorao and Marcelo Salas who helped Chile qualify for the 1998 World Cup. Like almost all the South American stars, the duo plied their trade in Europe, Zamarano for Real Madrid and Salas for Lazio. The Chilean parliament passed a resolution making it compulsory for the national TV channels to televise live all the matches of Real Madrid and Lazio featuring the two. The resolution implied it ‘as part of the national interest’.

Can our parliament do something similar for our national game; the only hope for a medal at the London 2012 ?

Otherwise the following scenario can’t be ruled out:

Teacher, “Hockey is Pakistan’s national game”.

Student, “Sir, what is hockey ?”.

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