Hockey can be promoted using innovative techniques, says Ayaz Mehmood
1984 Los Angeles Olympics winning team’s member, Ayaz Mehmood, talked over the promotion of hockey in Pakistan during an interview on Wednesday in Karachi.
According to the Former Olympian, hockey needs to be invigorated within the country by adopting new techniques just like what is practiced in the European countries. These innovative techniques will attract the youth and financers towards hockey and may
include the introduction of seven-a-side hockey tournaments under flood-lights and indoor hockey.
The Olympic gold medallist emphasised over the fact, “7-a-side hockey is very exciting and is played on smaller grounds with ten minutes half each which can attract the hockey supporters. This kind of modern hockey can revive interest of the die-hard supporters.
Peoples can watch this short duration hockey in the evenings in friendly cooler environment.”
Ayaz added that these two modern techniques of hockey allowed Europe to produce more quality players from its region and same can be done here. Moreover, Pakistan will be able to match-up with these fast paced teams, if the players here are trained in a
similar manner in the future.
He emphasised over the need of increasing the number of players within the country so as to establish a strong hockey base.
He named a few hurdles coming in way of the development of hockey and pointed the lack of interest from masses as one of the biggest drawback. Moreover, considering the fact that Pakistan is a country with warm climate and electricity issues every now and
then, it would be better to arrange generators as back-up for conducting night matches under flood-lights.
The Pakistan former half-back added, “Without broadening the scope of the game and attracting youth towards hockey, it cannot be revived. Day-night games in cricket revolutionised the sport and such steps are needed in hockey as well.”
In the meantime, Pakistan’s both junior and senior sides are doing well in their respective Asia Cup and Four-Nations Tournaments.
The junior side has provided an unbeatable record of 53 goals in just four of its matches and made it into the semi-finals comfortably.
Yesterday, June 23, the team whitewashed Kazakhstan by 12-0 in the pool matches and entered into the semi-finals, representing Pool A.
Today, June 24, the team will be in action against the Korean junior side at the Under-18 Junior Asia Cup, being held at Sengkang Stadium, Singapore.
On the other hand, the Greenshirts will be facing off against Ireland today at the University College Dublin (UCD) in Ireland.
Previously, the team played two matches, out of which one turned into a loss against France, whereas the other was a victory over China.
Khawaja Junaid, senior men’s team manager told media that there will be no changes in the squad and it is expected that the team will make it to the final.
Tags: