What Are The Major Causes Of The Pakistan Hockey Team Decline?

Hockey, the national game of Pakistan, is no doubt in decline phase from the last decade. Pakistan has not won any title since long ago. In my opinion the following are the major reasons.

The current players are facing financial problems and the youngsters looking at their situations avoids to adopt the hockey as career. The departmental structure of hockey is also not performing well.The school level hockey is dead. There are not competitions at school level. So, the talent is not coming to top level.

The Pakistan Hockey Federation is not interested in the development of hockey. The federation representatives are appointed on the basis on like and dislike. The senior players are not helping the new talent. They interested in playing hockey leagues in abroad to get the money.

The lack of facilities for the upcoming talent is also one the main reasons. The  youngsters have no ground, no couch, no guidance. In this way the talent is being wasted. The selection committee is not working on merit.

The standard of the Pakistan Hockey team has declined over the years. There could be various contributing factors for the same. The Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF), affiliated to the International Hockey Federation (FIH), controls the game in Pakistan since 1948. The PHF is more or less responsible for the current shabby state of Hockey in Pakistan.

The Pakistani hockey has not won any major international tournaments since 1994 world cup mainly due to the inefficiency of the management and lack of cohesiveness within the players. The internal conflict between the management and the coach on recent times has drastically reduced the performance of the team. Besides, the federation has not shown any special interest in popularizing the game throughout the country, as a result no new potential players have come out and joined the team. The new generation love cricket more, they are least interested about the other games. The federation should have taken initiative in generating awareness about hockey, but unfortunately, they have not done so. Slowly the game has now touched the bottom line. Imported oxygen is now urgently required by the Pakistan Hockey Federation to revive the game. Lack of discipline and understanding in the team is another major reason for declining the Hockey in Pakistan. Scientific coaching by a dedicated coach, dedication by the players, discipline, pay-packets, and induction of young players, etc. are the urgent need of the hour to stop further declining of the Pakistani Hockey team.