Has Pakistan's women hockey developed as compared to past years? – Part 1
Women hockey in Pakistan has always been a victim of criticism because of its failure to emerge as a one of world’s top teams as compared to their male counterparts, at domestic and international level.
However, when we look into reality it must be considered whether the team improved its competency as compared to the past or not and what factors have caused it to suddenly disappear from the international arena.
Even though the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) has its separate women wing to take care of the sport among women, yet it has not been given the right kind of attention it requires.
With the recent announcement of failing to send under-18 women hockey team for the 3rd Women Junior Asia Cup that was held last month in Bangkok, Thailand, it was heart-breaking to know that the federation could not search for 18 quality players from within
Pakistan that would meet the age limitation.
According to what has been observed by me, hockey is a top-most priority at many girls’ colleges within Punjab and many schools have also started coaching the sport among the young children.
It was hard to believe that PHF did not find potential junior players despite women hockey being so deeply promoted at grass root level within the country. Later, another eye-opener was totally unexpected that fake entries had been sent by clubs on behalf
of their players regarding their ages.
Addressing this matter, these players were called out to be banned by the federation for some period.
This led to the fact that the potential senior players were also ruled out to appear in the next international competitions due to their wrongful act.
In 2003, as I recall, there were many domestic hockey competitions that used to be held for starters from time and again that kept the particular team in practice, helping the players to get seasoned in a comparatively shorter time.
However, one of the biggest drawbacks I found was that the ill-practice of senior players disguising among their trained juniors in a team for taking part in junior events was there at that time too.
This caused the deserving players to sit as substitutes out of the ground whereas he seniors used to play the whole competition. Ultimately, this discouraged the young talent for progressing further and adopting the sport as their profession.
In present, the fraudulent practices have undoubtedly been reduced because now at times, there is live coverage of matches in which players can be seen and recognised by face.
Another reason for the decline in the youth’s interest in the sport is that the female players are not much preferred to be sent out to play international competitions as the federation itself does not have the confidence to believe over the team’s credibility.
Instead of giving grants to the development of women hockey, the federation only cares for the already world recognised men’s side.
Pakistan women hockey team needs to make its way up in the ranking’s list, currently resting at 55th place in the world and at a shameful last position at 12 among the Asian nations.
There are some more of the issues relevant to the development of Pakistan’s women hockey team that will be discussed in the next part of my article.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own and in no way represent Bettor.com's official editorial policy.
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