How Funds-Hit Pakistan Hockey Can Be Better Off Hiring Homegrown Coaches

Pakistan hockey have been promenading through the ‘tough’ road for a long while now – if their consistent absence from blockbuster tournaments such as the Olympics and the World Cup wasn’t a great advertisement for hockey in general, the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) splitting into two factions (one faction headed by politician Shehla Reza and secretary Haider Hussain and the other faction headed another politician, Mir Tariq Bugti and secretary Rana Mujahid) earlier this year served as a body blow for a team that is struggling to stay ‘relevant’ on the international hockey stage. Clearly, the federation is navigating a crisis of enormous proportions and to top it all, lack of funds have been frustratingly annoying for all those who want to see Pakistan reclaim its past glory.

The need of the hour is to summon desperate measures to revive the sport in the country. The Greenshirts, coached by Shahnaz Sheikh, missed the Paris Olympics bus after they failed to make the cut in the Muscat Olympic qualifiers, where they lost to New Zealand 2-3 in the 3-4th place play-off tie, which meant that Germany, Great Britain and New Zealand qualified as the top 3 teams. In fact, New Zealand have proved to be Pakistan’s nemesis beating the latter 2-1 again in the semifinals of the 2024 FIH Hockey Nations Cup at Gniezno, Poland, denying the Greenshirts an opportunity to be part of the 2024-25 Pro League. Of course, Pakistan team gave their supporters something to gloat about finishing runners-up at the 2014 Sultan Azlan Shah Cup at Ipoh, but in a tournaments held with a depleted field. The team took part in both FIH Hockey Nations Cup and Sultan Azlan Shah Cup with Roelant Oltmans as chief coach. And there is no clarity on whether the veteran Dutchman would take up a permanent role with the Greenshirts.

Funds have been a huge roadblock for the Pakistan team and it probably makes sense for the PHF to look for a homegrown coach and jettison the idea of hiring a foreign coach given the funds constraints PHF is grappling with. “Pakistan hockey is grappling with lack of funds and this has been a problem for a long time now. Pakistan would better off looking for a homegrown coach and abandon the thoughts of hiring a foreign coach as they don’t have the money. Among the homegrown coaches, Tahir Zaman is the best person to coach the Pakistan team – he is a senior FIH coach and understands modern hockey better than anybody else in Pakistan. Tahir is extremely passionate about Pakistan doing well in world hockey and Pakistan hockey can go places with him as coach. He has built a good reputation during his coaching stints with Egypt and Oman,” says former Pakistan coach Siegfried Aikman, who stepped down as Greenshirts coach last year after being unpaid for 12 months. Interestingly, the Dutchman, who has taken up a coaching role with Oman, has been paid for only two months even after he has quit the job.

On a serious note, Aikman shares his perspectives on how coaches in Pakistan would have find it challenging to stitch together a good team if a proper coaching structure is not in place. “Stop-gap measures won’t do any good to Pakistan hockey. I know so many players, who have moved abroad to play club hockey as everyone has a life to take care of. Having a good coach with a long-term plan and ensuring the coach stays motivated by paying salary on time can go a long way in reviving Pakistan hockey as there is abundant talent available,” he points out.

Aikman, who also had a successful coaching stint with the Japan men’s team, believes it would be unfair to over-hype Pakistan’s runners-up performance at the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup. “Many top teams were absent owing to the Olympics and so I don’t want to read much into their performance. Of course, it is a big morale-booster for the team that haven’t been done anything of significance on the international stage but nothing more than that, ” he opined.

One hopes that Pakistan hockey can pick up the pieces and emerge stronger from the prevailing tough times. World hockey has been poorer with the regular absence of Pakistan from high-profile FIH tourneys and the Greenshirts clawing their way back as a formidable hockey nation would be fantastic for hockey.