Pakistan Hockey Federation adopts unparallel ways to achieve its aims
In an outstanding and unparalleled move, the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) invited numerous former Olympians and renowned hockey players to discuss the strategies to polish the skills of Pakistan’s hockey team ahead of the 2012 London Olympics.
A few of the former Olympians are also in the list of people who do not miss a single chance to target and criticise the national team as well as the federation.
They even flayed criticism when the Green-shirts lifted the title in the Asian Games after a lapse of two decades.
PHF Secretary, Asif Bajwa, remarked about the meeting saying, “We are hoping for some good to come out of it. Our doors are always open for any kind of helpful suggestion. Maybe we can all sit together and reach a common consensus and evolve a suitable strategy
before next year’s London Olympics”.
However, the former Olympians have rather opposing views. Qamar Ibrahim, one of the former Olympians invited to devise the strategy for preparing the national team, rejected the idea completely, saying that this is not the right time for doing so.
He observed, “There are hardly eight months left, there is nothing left to plan for, and the federation should stick to its objectives. If they wanted to get former Olympics on board for the London Olympics then they should have done it three or four years
back, not now”.
One cannot comment right now which side is sincere in its intentions. However, the federation will have to take a few steps if it wants to make the session productive and fruitful.
Most importantly, it should form a course of action for the meeting that should help it in avoiding time wastage.
To facilitate all the participants, the PHF should fix a period of seven to eight minutes for each speaker. The participants should confine themselves during the discussion on the development of the sport in the country.
In the first phase, the former Olympians should evaluate the performance of the national line-up over the past two years. Then, they should give their suggestions and recommendations to develop the sport on scientific lines.
A better option would have been if the federation had asked the players to bring written pieces, covering all the major points of their view.
The key aspect of the brainstorming session should focus on the national team’s preparations for the Olympics and the development of the sport from the grass-root level.
It is worth highlighting here that Pakistan earned its major victories over the last fifteen years under the supervision of foreign trainers.
This logic is enough to support the fact that modern techniques are significant in results-oriented strategies.
The session of the former Olympians should provide valuable proposals in the best interest of the national game.
Apart from the weaknesses and grey areas, the former greats should also acknowledge the successes of the national team in the last two years.
Furthermore, they should guide the federation on how to prepare the team to become even better before the Olympics.
The national game will move on a new dimension if the meeting concludes successfully. One can only hope that the former Olympians will participate in the PHF meeting, especially for the sake of the national game.
This sitting can enable the country to achieve the previous status of the sport if both, the federation and the former Olympians, cooperate with each other.
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