There has clearly been a decline in hockey in South Asia in recent years. Most of the money and glory has gone to cricket. India, the 8-time Olympics champs, did not even qualify for Beijing this year.
I think both nations are up against a total lack of athletic attention in the early years for kids in schools. The kind of fitness, skill and speed required for today’s hockey can not be developed without starting early in a serious way. Our competitiveness will remain below par unless the fundamentals are addressed.
While All Things Pakistan has remained alive and online, it has been dormant since June 11, 2011 - when, on the blog's 5th anniversary, we decided that it was time to move on. We have been heartened by your messages and the fact that a steady traffic has continued to enjoy the archived content on ATP.
While the blog itself will remain dormant, we are now beginning to add occasional (but infrequent) new material by the original authors of the blog, mostly to archive what they may now publish elsewhere. We will also be updating older posts to make sure that new readers who stumble onto this site still find it useful.
We hope you will continue to find ATP a useful venue to reflect upon and express your Pakistaniat. - Editors
There has clearly been a decline in hockey in South Asia in recent years. Most of the money and glory has gone to cricket. India, the 8-time Olympics champs, did not even qualify for Beijing this year.
I think both nations are up against a total lack of athletic attention in the early years for kids in schools. The kind of fitness, skill and speed required for today’s hockey can not be developed without starting early in a serious way. Our competitiveness will remain below par unless the fundamentals are addressed.