fatman17
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So the Olympics are over and the countries of the sub-continent collectively could only muster 2 Silvers and 4 Bronze medals (all to India) with a population bordering on 1.6 Billion people!!!. in comparison the tiny country of Trinidad and Tabago won 1 Gold with a population of a few million and similarly the east african state of Uganda won a Gold medal.
In any kind of Sport, no one remembers who came in second or third, its all about being No.1. there is someting wrong here on the sub-continent. we dont have our priorities straight - just look at the Pakistani contingent - 16 hockey players, 1-shooter, 1-athlete and 1-swimmer (all wild card enteries, thanks to the IOC) and there were 26 officials sent to the Olympics to 'free-load' for 2 weeks on government expense.
i recall interviews of various gold-medal winners when asked 'how long did you train for this event', in most cases the answer was between 2 to 3 years of hard training to compete in the Olympics - 2 to 3 years!!!. imagine the Dedication, the Motivation, the Discipline. i dont know the training habits of athletes from India, BD, SL, etc but in Pakistan, the hockey team (which was our best chance to garner a medal) assembled 2 months before the Olympics for Training - 2 months compared to 2-3 years -how can one train for only 2 months before going to the 'Greatest Sports Show on Earth'......and the results are looking right at us in our face.
Sure we were able to win 3 pool matches and draw one but in the 'cruch' matches we were out-scored 11-1 and our Goal-Keeper was supposedly the best athlete on the team - we were inferior to our opponets in Fitness, Stamina, Strategy and Match Tactics. it almost seemed like we just wake-up, put on our kits and take the field.
Then we had the audacity to blame our defeats on the colour of the astroturf or desoturf - we are not used to the color 'Blue' and the second excuse made by the manager and coach of our team (in their defense), 'oh atleast we were better than India' - what a copout!. sure India did not win a single match but was this our Olympic Objective? finish ahead of India and all will be well.!!!
Our last Gold medal was won in LA'84. i was fortunate enough to be in the US at that time and saw the match in front of a roaring ex-pat pakistani community as we beat W-Germany 2-1 with a last-minute effort by Kalimullah (individual effort in the best asian style of hockey). since then except for the surprise win in the 92 World Cup in Australia (once again a brilliant solo effort by Shabaz Sr) we won 2-1 against Australia, the winners cupboard is bare and will remain bare if we continue to not show interest in what is our 'National Game'. Cricket and the money behind it has taken over the sports culture in Pakistan. everything else has been left by the wayside.
Everyone will be surprised to know that all our hockey players (90%) hail from one town - Gojra in Faisalabad Distt. the high school in Gojra has produced something like 68 Olympians and the young players continue to play their hockey on natural turf - there is no synthetic surface available at the 'Cradle of Hockey'. in Pakistan there are less than 10 international standard hockey pitches, in contrast in the Netherlands and Germany, they have 2,500 pitches. each club has its own pitch - its no wonder that the Champions are now emerging from those countries (they played the final in 2012).
We are stuck in the 'Asian Style' of hockey. dribble the ball past your opponent, individual efforts, No Teamwork. the europeans and the aussies have superior hockey skills, their passing, trapping and penalty corner routines are nearly perfect. they have 'plays' direct and in-direct for their penalty corner drills - whilst our penalty corner expert kept on driving, drag-flicking the ball straight at the goal-keeper who kept on blocking it - no imagination in our play and drills.
The game of Hockey has completely changed but we are stuck in a 'time-warp', refusing to change our style, our behaviour, our outlook towards the game. Corruption and Nepotism has destroyed the game. we dont have a league system where young and budding players can hone their skills, our coaches are not 'certified' coaches, sure they are all ex-olympians, some with glittering pasts, but the modern game is 100% different than when India (8 Golds) and Pakistan (3 Golds) dominated all levels of the sport - Commonwealth, Asian,Olympic and World Cups. Heck Pakistan introduced the prestigious Champions Trophy and went on to win the first 3 titles. since then zilch!
If we dont change our system, invest in international standard infrastructure, train our coaches in the New Hockey, have a development program for our hockey players, invest in the 'Cradle of Hockey', soon enough it will all end.
Is Anybody Listening!!!
In any kind of Sport, no one remembers who came in second or third, its all about being No.1. there is someting wrong here on the sub-continent. we dont have our priorities straight - just look at the Pakistani contingent - 16 hockey players, 1-shooter, 1-athlete and 1-swimmer (all wild card enteries, thanks to the IOC) and there were 26 officials sent to the Olympics to 'free-load' for 2 weeks on government expense.
i recall interviews of various gold-medal winners when asked 'how long did you train for this event', in most cases the answer was between 2 to 3 years of hard training to compete in the Olympics - 2 to 3 years!!!. imagine the Dedication, the Motivation, the Discipline. i dont know the training habits of athletes from India, BD, SL, etc but in Pakistan, the hockey team (which was our best chance to garner a medal) assembled 2 months before the Olympics for Training - 2 months compared to 2-3 years -how can one train for only 2 months before going to the 'Greatest Sports Show on Earth'......and the results are looking right at us in our face.
Sure we were able to win 3 pool matches and draw one but in the 'cruch' matches we were out-scored 11-1 and our Goal-Keeper was supposedly the best athlete on the team - we were inferior to our opponets in Fitness, Stamina, Strategy and Match Tactics. it almost seemed like we just wake-up, put on our kits and take the field.
Then we had the audacity to blame our defeats on the colour of the astroturf or desoturf - we are not used to the color 'Blue' and the second excuse made by the manager and coach of our team (in their defense), 'oh atleast we were better than India' - what a copout!. sure India did not win a single match but was this our Olympic Objective? finish ahead of India and all will be well.!!!
Our last Gold medal was won in LA'84. i was fortunate enough to be in the US at that time and saw the match in front of a roaring ex-pat pakistani community as we beat W-Germany 2-1 with a last-minute effort by Kalimullah (individual effort in the best asian style of hockey). since then except for the surprise win in the 92 World Cup in Australia (once again a brilliant solo effort by Shabaz Sr) we won 2-1 against Australia, the winners cupboard is bare and will remain bare if we continue to not show interest in what is our 'National Game'. Cricket and the money behind it has taken over the sports culture in Pakistan. everything else has been left by the wayside.
Everyone will be surprised to know that all our hockey players (90%) hail from one town - Gojra in Faisalabad Distt. the high school in Gojra has produced something like 68 Olympians and the young players continue to play their hockey on natural turf - there is no synthetic surface available at the 'Cradle of Hockey'. in Pakistan there are less than 10 international standard hockey pitches, in contrast in the Netherlands and Germany, they have 2,500 pitches. each club has its own pitch - its no wonder that the Champions are now emerging from those countries (they played the final in 2012).
We are stuck in the 'Asian Style' of hockey. dribble the ball past your opponent, individual efforts, No Teamwork. the europeans and the aussies have superior hockey skills, their passing, trapping and penalty corner routines are nearly perfect. they have 'plays' direct and in-direct for their penalty corner drills - whilst our penalty corner expert kept on driving, drag-flicking the ball straight at the goal-keeper who kept on blocking it - no imagination in our play and drills.
The game of Hockey has completely changed but we are stuck in a 'time-warp', refusing to change our style, our behaviour, our outlook towards the game. Corruption and Nepotism has destroyed the game. we dont have a league system where young and budding players can hone their skills, our coaches are not 'certified' coaches, sure they are all ex-olympians, some with glittering pasts, but the modern game is 100% different than when India (8 Golds) and Pakistan (3 Golds) dominated all levels of the sport - Commonwealth, Asian,Olympic and World Cups. Heck Pakistan introduced the prestigious Champions Trophy and went on to win the first 3 titles. since then zilch!
If we dont change our system, invest in international standard infrastructure, train our coaches in the New Hockey, have a development program for our hockey players, invest in the 'Cradle of Hockey', soon enough it will all end.
Is Anybody Listening!!!