waqas khan
There was a time when we could proudly claim that Pakistan has won the hockey world cup four times and three times won a gold medal in the Olympics.
But now, sadly, most of us do not know who the current captain of the Pakistan hockey team is? The game almost does not exist in our country.
No one talks about it, not even the mainstream media. Immense coverage of cricket has faded the struggling national game.
We mostly see cricket players in commercials but no hockey players.
There are other games in which we outclassed for example squash but hockey being our national game should have received at least a ray of lime-light.
Shahid Khan Afridi is well known for his fastest century but Sohail Abbas, the one who scored 348 goals which is a world record in field hockey is unknown to the new generation.
There are many things which lead the game from gold to dust.
The unavailability of hockey grounds is one of them.
There are only seven grounds for hockey on the national level.
Due to the low number of grounds the game became stagnant.
Students in educational institutions are not encouraged to participate in the game firstly because of the lack of facilities secondly because of its vague future.
To make the game lively the government should pay heed on the game.
Pakistan has a tremendous legacy in hockey which should be included in textbooks to promote the game in new generations.
Number of hockey grounds should be increased so the youth may have easy access to the game.
There are veteran players who are living hand to mouth because of the forgotten game and the government should take their services to resurrect the game
