ISLAMABAD, Pakistan hockey team will visit India next year to participate in the four nations hockey tournament in the city of Jallandhar.

Pakistan Hockey Federation Secretary former Olympian Asif Bajwa said PHF had received the invitation from Indian Hockey Federation for participation in the 4-nation international hockey tournament at Jallandhar.Bajwa said he would also try to arrange regular annual hockey test series between Pakistan and India.He stressed that Pakistan and India should regularly play matches between themselves. Other teams to compete are hosts India, Netherlands and Olympic champion Germany.

KARACHI, Trials of Pakistan hockey team for Hamburg Master Hockey Tournament will be held tomorrow in Karachi. Mohammad Imran or Shakeel Abbasi is likely to be made captainIn preparation for the Hamburg Master Hockey Tournament, a training camp for the probable players of Pakistan hockey team is being held at the Hockey Club of Pakistan Stadium.

Vice captain of Pakistan hockey team in the Beijing Olympics and Mohammad Rizwan have gone to Korea with their departmental team.Manager and chief coach Jahangir Butt said that both these players would not take part in the trials but final decision for including them in the team would be made by PHF president Mir Zafarullah Jamali and secretary Asif Bajwa. Two names are being considered for new captain of the national team. Vice captain Mohammad Imran is expected to be appointed captain or senior player Shakeel Abbasi may be handed over the captaincy of the team.

The Pakistan Hockey Federation could not announce new selection committee and the president and the secretary of the federation and team management will select an 18-member team for the tournament.The Hamburg Master Hockey Tournament will be played in Germany from October 3 to 5 and the Olympics champions Germany, Malaysia and Belgium will participate in the tournament.

LAHORE, Senior vice president of the Pakistan Hockey Federation Khalid Mahmood on Friday resigned from his post, saying that his term was only till the Olympics, as per the instructions of PHF President Zafarullah Jamali.

PHF Secretary Asif Bajwa confirmed the resignations of chief selector Islah and Khalid on Friday. “Islah talked to me on the telephone informing me about his resignation and Khalid will send in his on Saturday. But I have no knowledge whether President Jamali asked the chief selector to resign,” said Asif.

There are rumours that the PHF president had asked Islah, Khalid and the two-member selection committee to resign from their posts in order to prove that he had launched an operation against those who fared poorly in the build-up to the Beijing Olympics which were a disaster for the Pakistan team.

It is surprising, though, that Jamali is himself not ready to own-up to his share of follies which contributed largely to the poor performance at the Games.

It was Jamali who had exercised his complete authority as PHF chief last June when he braved the federal government’s wrath to contest the removal of Khalid Mahmood as the federation’s secretary. He openly challenged the induction of Asif Bajwa as the new secretary PHF but later accepted his appointment while elevating Khalid as the senior vice president.

Hockey circles expected Jamali to quit his post following Pakistan hockey team’s disastrous campaign at Beijing after chief coach Khawaja Zakauddin and coach Naveed Alam quit their posts early this week. That, however, did not happen.

Surprisingly, Islah just a couple of days back had said he would not resign from the post but when Jamali ordered him to do the same, he took no time in sending his resignation.

The sources also said on Friday that Marketing Director Pervez Bhindara and Media Director Altaf Sabir had resigned too on the orders of PHF chief.

Moreover, the PHF secretary said the new selection committee would be announced, soon.

Miracles can still happen. But they are unlikely to.

[Pakistan at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games] [Pakistan at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games] [Pakistan at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games]

In a few hours (at 6PM Beijing time) Pakistan’s field hockey team will play its fourth qualifying game against South Africa. Pakistan can and should win this game (South Africa is rated at the bottom of the teams that have qualified for Beijing). But as important will be the results of the Australia v. Netherlands match, also to be played today at 8.30PM Beijing time. If Australia beats the Netherlands (possible) and - and this is very important - Pakistan then also beats the Netherlands (quite unlikely) and ends up with a goal average better than the Netherlands then Pakistan may - and, yes, its is still a may - have a chance to slide into the semi-finals (things will also depend of what Great Britain does in its remaining games). Had we not lost our first game to Great Britain we might have had a realistic chance; but we did not.

As I said, miracles can happen. But they are unlikely to.

(AFP Photo: From Left -Iraq’s Dana Abdulrazak, France’s Christine Arron, Pakistan’s Sadaf Siddiqui, Brazil’s Lucimar de Moura, Lauryn Williams of the US and Tuvalu’s Asenate Manoa during the women’s 100m heat at the 2008 Beijing Olympics on August 16, 2008.

But let us not be too harsh on the Pakistan Olympic squad. Winning is great. But participation also matters. And we have not been paying enough attention to Pakistani athletes, especially those not playing hockey, who have actually been participating at Beijing. So, here is a summary of what they have been up to. We salute them for their participation. Cheer them on for the effort they have put in. And look forward to better placements next time. (One of the following, Abdul Rashid, will be participating in the 110m hurdles at 3.10PM Beijing Time, today):

    08.10.2008 - 25 years old Siddique Umar participated in the Men’s M 10m Air Rifle (60 shots). With a score of 578.0 he finished 48th.

    08.13.2008 - 25 years old Adil Baig participated in Heat 5 of the Men’s 50m swimming qualifier. With a time of 25.66 seconds he finished 7th in his heat and overall 74th in the qualifiers.

    08.14.2008 - 18 years old Kiran Khan participated in Heat 4 of the Women’s 50m swimming qualifier. With a time of 29.84 seconds she finished 6th in her heat and overall 69th in the qualifiers.

    08.15.2008 - 22 years old Sadaf Siddiqui participated in Heat 2 of the Women’s 100m Round 1 Heat 2. With a time of 12.41 seconds she finished 7th in her heat. She did not qualify for next round.

    08.16.2008 - 25 years old Siddique Umar participated in the Men’s 50m Free Rifle 3 positions (3×40 shots). With a score of 1116.0 he finished 49th.

    08.17.2008 - 29 years old Abdul Rashid will participate in the Men’s 110m Hurdles Round 1, Heat 3.

[Pakistan at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games] [Pakistan at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games] [Pakistan at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games] [Pakistan at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games]

Not unexpectedly, it is ever more clear that Pakistan’s Olympic 2008 contingent is likely to return from Beijing without any medals. Indeed, Pakistan has not won a medal since the 1992 Barcelona games (Bronze in Hockey). The question, then, is what could we do to change this dry spell. Not just in hockey but in other sports?

Squash legend Jehangir Khan, who now leads the World Squash Federation (WSF) is right now trying to make Squash an Olympics sport for the 2016 Games. He is quite likely to succeed. But given Pakistan’s recent squash performance it is not certain that this will ensure us a medal in 2016.

Cricket, in its 20-20 variant, could also make it to the Olympics sometime soon. Cricket was actually contested in the 1900 Olympics, but only two countries participated. That would likely make us competitive. But what about existing sports? If there was the will and the resources what could one do to make Pakistan show up in the medal tables?

What specific steps would you take if you were made the sports czar of Pakistan with teh goal of ensuring that Pakistan appears in the medal table by 2016. What sports would you focus on? Why? How?

Do please share ideas. Maybe, just maybe, someone out there may be listening.

BEIJING(APP): Pakistan chances of qualifying for the knockout stage of XXIX Beijing Olympic Games Hockey suffered a serious blow on Friday after their 1-3 defeat against Defending Champion Australia at Olympic Green Hockey Stadium under floodlights.Pakistan demonstrated sparking display in both the halfs’ but Australia came from a goal down to carve out an exciting victory.

Centre-forward Shakeel Abbasi scored a spectacular goal in 16th minute with a superb reverse-sweep. But Grant Schubert, Jamie Dwyer and Travis Brooks scored the goals to turn the tables on Pakistan.The match was however marred by dubious and questionable umpiring by Henrik Ehler of Denmark and Gary Simmonds of South Africa who shown three yellow cards to Waqas Sharif, Muhammad Saqlain and Waqas Akbar which caused the damage in Pakistan ranks.Pakistan was reduced to nine men after umpires gave marching order to Muhammad Saqlain and Waqas Akbar in the last five minutes.

Australia started well and on combined attack through George Bevan, Matthew Wells, Brooks and Dwyer earned a penalty corner in eighth minute after ball-hit the foot of Pakistan defender. However, Matthew attempt luckily hit the goal post.Rehan Butt, Abbasi and Waqas Akbar created inroads into Australian defence. Nevertheless, it went to waste.

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LAHORE, Lahore won the Sports Board Punjab Under-15 Hockey Championship by defeating Bahawalpur here at the National Hockey Stadium on Sunday.

In the final of the tournament, Lahore 3-1.

Lahore team displaying excellent game and was winning by three goals to nil at the end of the first half.

For Lahore, Asfar Yaqoob, Mohammad Rizwan and Mohammad Usman netted one goal each while Muzammal made goal for Bahawalpur.

Earlier, Sargodha beat Faisalabad 3-0 to obtain the third position in the championship.

LAHORE, The Pakistan hockey Federation has named Zeeshan Ashraf to lead Pakistan’s difficult campaign to regain the Olympic hockey gold medal in Beijing.The PHF finally announced a 16-member squad for the games with no major selection surprises.

President PHF, Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali hoped that the team will be victorious and stressed that the selection has been made from the best players available for the event.While talking to media, he said that it depends how the team performs on the particular day he assured the media that the team has the potential to do wonders at the event.Former secretray PHF Khalid Mehmood will accompany the team as his Olympic accrediation was made earlier.Jamali said the management will be trying to send more officials with the team.

˜The players who play well on grassy surfaces can play competitive hockey on Astroturf. Their game gets better automatically when they start playing on Astroturf; but they should have sufficient skill for it says Samiullah.

Samiullah is one of the finest hockey players that Pakistan ever produced. Nicknamed “the flying horse because of the break-neck speed at which he used to carry the ball towards the opponent goal, Samiullah played a pivotal role in winning the gold medal for Pakistan at the 1978 Asian Games in Bangkok, and bronze medal at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal.

These days, he is one of the members of the national selection committee. Recently Mag4you.com caught up with Samiullah and had a discussion with him on the downfall of Pakistan hockey. Excerpts follow:

What were the reasons for Pakistan poor performance at the just concluded Azlan Shah Cup in Malaysia?
The team performance was very poor, and keeping in mind the forthcoming Beijing Olympics, the situation is quite unsatisfactory. Both India and Malaysia tried out their junior teams in the competition, while Pakistan took its original senior outfit. What will happen to Pakistan in the juniors qualifying rounds in July is anybody guess.

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Reference: http://pakistaniat.com/

It is not often that one dares to place a headline as bold as the one above. We have used such superlatives a few times before, but very few: for the dialogues from Maula Jatt, for the blockbuster movie Aina, twice for the PTV show Fifty-Fifty, once for the show and once for its skits (both times with question marks), and once for the miracle cricket match in Sharjah and Miandad’s fabulous sixer to clinch the game on the last ball. Today, we use it again.

Khalid Abbas DarThis is certainly not the best work of Khalid Abbas Dar - for my money, the most brilliant stand-up comic Pakistan has ever produced (I was never a fan of his stage dramas, but his solo routines, especially the old PTV ones were a superb - but it may well be the funniest hockey commentary ever, anywhere. Khalid sahib’s all-time greatest performance is the “classical” singing he does with made up words - it is side-splitting funny - originally recorded during the 1971 election transmission and recorded multiple times later.

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Reference: http://pakistaniat.com/

No matter what higher officials of Pakistan Hockey Federation and coach of Pakistan’s national hockey team say about the chances of Pakistan in upcoming Beijing Olympics 2008, unfortunately things are not looking too rosy. It has been a long while since we did anything memorable in the Olympics. To be specific, it was Barcelona Olympics 1992 where our national hockey team touched the podium when they got the bronze medal in the event. Los Angeles Olympics 1984 was the last occasion when Pakistan grabbed gold medal for the event.

Since then it is all downhill slide for our hockey. For the first few years, we held Astroturf responsible for our debacle but when all major countries started getting equipped to play on the new surface then our lame excuses looked more lame and tired.

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