Champions Trophy Hockey: Pakistan finishes 7th

Posted on December 10, 2007
Filed Under >Owais Mughal, Sports
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Owais Mughal

Pakistan has finished at a distant seventh place in the 29th Champions trophy hockey tournament. This is the lowest rank for Pakistan in the history of Champions Trophy. Despite being the national game of Pakistan, the demise of hockey in the country has been epic. In the recent past Pakistan hockey team got defeats at the hands of China, Canada and Malaysia, which were unheard of until 2006. So where does the blame lie for this steady debacle? I thought about it and I concluded that besides the usual suspects i.e the coach, the captain, the selection committee etc; A big portion of the blame also goes to the disproportionate sponsorship which goes to the game of cricket as compared to that of hockey. There is lots of money in becoming a cricket superstar and not so much in becoming the hockey hero. Not to mention the glamor and the popularity associated with being a cricketer is manifolds than a hockey player. e.g. how many advertisement offers does Sohail Abbas (hockey) gets as compared to (say) Shahid Afridi (Cricket). Of course Shahid‘s good looks also play a role but Sohail Abbas is not that ugly that he couldn’t even get Lifeboy soap’s endorsement. Zameer Jafri‘s sher comes to mind

un ki gali meiN aisay khaRaa hooN
jaisay hockey ka goal keeper hooN

I understand my reasoning of blaming hockey’s debacle on cricket is too simplistic but I do think it is one of the biggest reasons in case of Pakistan atleast.

If we look around our neighborhoods, it is evident that Hockey, as a popular game in Pakistan has been on a constant decline since 1980s. A few youth today choose hockey as a hobby or profession as compared to those who choose cricket. Hockey clubs and grounds at neighborhood level, which were a common sight in 1980s have disappeared now. Today the reign of cricket as the most popular game in Pakistan is complete.

Getting back to Champions Trophy Hockey tournament and Pakistan’s record in it, I’ve collected following history of the tournament. The tournament was started in 1979, thanks to its founding father Air Marshal (retd) Nur Khan who was also the chief of hockey affairs in Pakistan then. Following data shows Pakistan’s performance in the 29 Champions trophy tournaments.

I: 1979: Lahore, Pakistan

1st: Pakistan
2nd: Australia
3rd: England
4th: New Zealand

II: 1980: Karachi, Pakistan

1st: Pakistan
2nd: West Germany
3rd: Australia
4th: Netherlands

III: 1981: Karachi, Pakistan

1st: Netherlands
2nd: Australia
3rd: West Germany
4th: Pakistan

IV: 1982: Amstelveen, Netherlands

1st: Netherlands
2nd: Australia
3rd: India
4th: Pakistan

V: 1983: Karachi, Pakistan

1st: Australia
2nd: Pakistan
3rd: West Germany
4th: India

VI: 1984: Karachi, Pakistan

1st: Australia
2nd: Pakistan
3rd: England
4th: Netherlands

VII: 1985: Perth, Australia

1st: Australia
2nd: England
3rd: West Germany
4th: Pakistan

VIII: 1986: Karachi, Pakistan

1st: West Germany
2nd: Australia
3rd: Pakistan
4th: England

IX: 1987: Amstelveen, Netherlands

1st: West Germany
2nd: Netherlands
3rd: Australia
4th: England
Unknown: Pakistan ? reader’s help needed here

X: 1988: Lahore, Pakistan

1st: West Germany
2nd: Pakistan
3rd: Australia
4th: USSR

XI: 1989: Berlin, West Germany

1st: Australia
2nd: Netherlands
3rd: West Germany
4th: Pakistan

XII: 1990: Melbourne, Australia

1st: Australia
2nd: Netherlands
3rd: West Germany
4th: Pakistan
5th: USSR
6th: England

XIII: 1991: Berlin, Germany

1st: Germany
2nd: Pakistan
3rd: Netherlands
4th: Australia
5th: England
6th: USSR

XIV: 1992: Karachi, Pakistan

1st: Germany
2nd: Australia
3rd: Pakistan
4th: Netherlands
5th: England
6th: France

XV: 1993: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

1st: Australia
2nd: Germany
3rd: Netherlands
4th: Pakistan
5th: Spain
6th: Malaysia

XVI: 1994: Lahore, Pakistan

1st: Pakistan
2nd: Germany
3rd: Netherlands
4th: Australia
5th: Spain
6th: England

XVII: 1995: Berlin, Germany

1st: Germany
2nd: Australia
3rd: Pakistan
4th: Netherlands
5th: India
6th: England

XVIII: 1996: Madras, India

1st: Netherlands
2nd: Pakistan
3rd: Germany
4th: India
5th: Spain
6th: Australia

XIX: 1997: Adelaide, Australia

1st: Germany
2nd: Australia
3rd: Spain
4th: Netherlands
5th: Pakistan
6th: South Korea

XX: 1998: Lahore, Pakistan

1st: Netherlands
2nd: Pakistan
3rd: Australia
4th: South Korea
5th: Spain
6th: Germany

XXI: 1999: Brisbane, Australia

1st: Australia
2nd: South Korea
3rd: Netherlands
4th: Spain
5th: England
6th: Pakistan

XXII: 2000: Amstelveen, Netherlands

1st: Netherlands
2nd: Germany
3rd: South Korea
4th: Spain
5th: Australia
6th: Englsnd
Pakistan did not qualify to play this year

XXIII: 2001: Rotterdam, Netherlands

1st: Germany
2nd: Australia
3rd: Netherlands
4th: Pakistan
5th: England
6th: South Korea

XXIV: 2002: Cologne, Germany

1st: Netherlands
2nd: Germany
3rd: Pakistan
4th: India
5th: Australia
6th: South Korea

XXV: 2003: Amstelveen, Netherlands

1st: Netherlands
2nd: Australia
3rd: Pakistan
4th: India
5th: Argentina
6th: Germany

XXVI: 2004: Lahore, Pakistan

1st: Spain
2nd: Netherlands
3rd: Pakistan
4th: India
5th: Germany
6th: New Zealand

XXVII: 2005: Chennai, India

1st: Australia
2nd: Netherlands
3rd: Spain
4th: Germany
5th: Pakistan
6th: India

XXVIII: 2006: Terrassa, Spain

1st: Netherlands
2nd: Germany
3rd: Spain
4th: Australia
5th: Pakistan
6th: Argentina

XXIX: 2007: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

1st: Germany
2nd: Australia
3rd: Netherlands
4th: South Korea
5th: Spain
6th: England
7th: Pakistan
8th: Malaysia

ATP’s other Hockey Related Posts

1. Abdul Waheed Khan and Pakistan Hockey
2. Upset or End of Pakistan Hockey
3. Hockey World Cup: Attention Deficit

References:

1. Pakistan Hockey Federation
2. Wikipedia

18 responses to “Champions Trophy Hockey: Pakistan finishes 7th”

  1. bhitai says:

    @Did you grow up

    Funny you mention football. With the current level of stamina, how exactly do you suppose the pakistani youth can excel in football that arguably needs much more of it than hockey?

    @Kashif
    I think our youth are just lazy. May be all these premier leagues around the world will give them some incentives to get off their butts to do some hard work.

  2. Ahmad R. Shahid says:

    Neither hockey nor football. I think the money should go more into Tennis in which we have a rising star, Aisam-ul-Haq without any government or private sector sponsorship.

    First a sport has to become popular among people on its own and then it should be sponsored, rather than the other way around. Once snooker became popular among masses, because it was cheap, only then we were able to produce a world champion, Muhammad Yunis. I don’t know about Hockey but Football has never got the popularity in Pakistan. Only other sport I can think of that is played quite a lot, specially in poor areas, is volley ball. If there needs to be any investment it should be in volley ball if the private sector finds it to be profitable to invest beyond the cities. But I think the private sector won’t go to the rural area unless the cities have become saturated, which going by the population growth rates would still take many years. Till that time stick with cricket and forget about hockey.

  3. Faraz Khalid says:

    It’s a simple demand and supply situation. here’s how it works:

    a) Sponsors are mostly driven by popularity and marketability of the item. Hockey (or anything for that matter) would have to be popular and marketable first, and sponsors would drop by automatically.
    b) Now how can hockey be popular? simple. The people who run the sport need to invest in the sport. Infrastructure, regional competitions, youth programs, prize money, training camps, high profile coaches, international events and all the works. Once you start to get youth involved, your team starts to do well, you keep the momentum going and the game’s popularity starts to rise. This is when you start getting private money in the form of big sponsorships, adding more fuel to the momentum. Once you start winning major tournaments, the interest level keeps going further up. You win a world cup or olympic gold, and its jackpot.
    c) The problem is that initially quite significant investment would be needed for point b to work. Is Govt willing to spend that much money on a game that seems to be dying? or should the same money (or more) be spent on reviving football?
    d) Austroturfs have made hockey very expensive. If you grow up playing on grass, you will find it difficult to adjust at international level. Again, major investment is required to make austroturf a common entity.
    e) On the flip side, we have a history to go by. And have been producing good hockey players. So the return on investment in hockey might still be higher than that on football. Afterall, it is still more likely for Pakistan to win a Hockey world cup, compared to a football world cup.

  4. Ahmad R. Shahid says:

    Yeah I think we should stop trying to excel in Hockey and do something better. There is always the opportunity cost associated with everything. Rather than trying to revitalize Hockey better spend those resources on more useful things where the ratio of output to input is greater than in hockey. We should forget about the “national game” crap. Its old thinking. Welcome aboard the new age!

    Please don’t bring the government to such minor issues, when it is more busy hijakcing judicial activism and making us free of any notions of basic human rights.

    Also the private sector should not be expected to jump into the fray. It would only do so if there is money to be made, which we all know can’t be made in this game of yore. We should rather ask the cricket board, what has it achieved in Cricket on which we spend a lot of money and we appoint only the lackeys of the President-(R) General to head its bodies.

  5. Ahmad R. Shahid says:

    Yeah I think we should stop trying to excel in Hockey and do something better. There is always the opportunity cost associated with everything. Rather than trying to revitalize Hockey better spend those resources on more useful things where the ratio of output to input is greater than in hockey. We should forget about the “national game” crap. Its old thinking. Welcome aboard the new age!

    Please don’t bring the government to such minor issues, when it is more busy hijakcing judicial activism and making us free of any notions of basic human rights.

    Also the private sector should not be expected to jump into the fray. It would only do so if there is money to be made, which we all know can’t be made in this game of yore. We should rather ask the cricket board, what has it achieved in Cricket on which we spend a lot of money and we appoint only the lackeys of the President-(R) General to head its bodies. Musharraf, the president of PCB, should answer the failures of our cricket team.

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