The national junior hockey team qualified for the World Cup, a news that filled the Pakistani nation with joy. After a long time it was also seen that people related to the final match against India kept calling each other asking if there was a link available for the final or not. The curiosity of hockey fans was heightened as they are worried about whether the moon will be visible or not the day before Eid. They wanted to see their team play as they were pleasantly surprised to learn that the Pakistan Junior team had qualified for the World Cup. This was seen for the first time after a long time. Although India won the 12th Asia Cup hockey tournament by two goals against our one after a tough and interesting match, but the Pakistani young players made it difficult for the team which was much better than them in the hockey ranking. Despite the defeat against India, Pakistani players put up a brilliant performance that will be remembered for years. There are very few moments in the history of Pakistani sports when the national team did not win the title but still the Pakistani fans could not stop applauding the players.

 In the final of the event with India, the national team created a spell of performance in all areas of the game. The forwards of both the teams attacked each other’s goal vigorously but the goalkeepers of both the teams showed excellent performances. During this time, the physical fitness and stamina of the Pakistani players looked amazing, while technically the Pakistan team also looked better than the last few years. The efforts and hard work of the selection committee was behind the excellent performance of the team players. While the overall performance of the team was impressive, it was also felt that we looked weak in the penalty corner while our forwards were not able to take advantage of opportunities to warm up inside the D, due to which the title of Asia Cup went out of hands.

[ Now that we have to compete against European teams in the Junior World Cup, the World Cup competitions will be different from the Junior Asia Cup. There you have to compete with the top team of world cup ranking. Which will be no less than a challenge. You have to prepare for it now. Matches against European teams have to be managed and now more than ever you have to improve your physical fitness level as well as increase your stamina and pay more attention to technical things. Especially in the penalty corner department, there will be a lot of improvement as there will be tough teams to compete with during the World Cup. We have to bring variety to the penalty corners drill while the forwards have to take advantage of the scoring opportunities inside the D. Of course, all this will be in the knowledge of the team’s coach Roelant Oltmans, Olympian Hanif Khan, Olympian Zeeshan Ashraf and other supporting staff.

It should be noted that teams from Bangladesh, Chinese Taipei, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Oman, Pakistan, Thailand and Uzbekistan participated in the Junior Asia Cup. These teams were divided into two groups. Group ‘A’ included India, Pakistan, Japan, Thailand and Chinese Taipei, while Group ‘B’ included defending champions Korea, runners-up Malaysia, Oman, Bangladesh and Uzbekistan. Pakistan qualified for the World Cup by defeating Chinese Taipei by 15 goals to one, Ireland by 9-0, and Japan’s strong team by three goals to two after a hard-fought group match. The main match of the group was a 1-1 draw against India. India scored a total of 39 goals against all the other teams in their pool and conceded 2 goals while Pakistan scored a total of 28 goals and conceded 4 against them at the end of their group matches, the semi-final and final goals were apart of that. At the end of the pool matchs, Malaysia was the only team in the tournament to win all their pool matches and collect 12 points. India and Pakistan scored 10 points each while the Korean team scored 9 points. The Pakistani team won the honor of playing the final of the Asia Cup for the 7th time. On the other hand, the Indian team managed to win the Asia Cup for the 4th time, reaching the final for the 9th time.  So far the Korean team has been able to play the finals 6 times and the Malaysian team twice.

It should be noted that the Korean team has been able to win the Asia Cup starting from Karachi in 1982 five times, the Indian team four times and Pakistan three times. The new champion of the Asia Cup, the Indian team was the runner-up for five times and the Pakistani team for the fourth time. Malaysia has managed to get silver medal twice and Korean team once. Pakistan hockey team won the Asia Cup in 1982, 1985 and 1989 and coincidentally, Pakistan won the title all three times by defeating India in the finals. While the Indian team has been able to defeat the Pakistani team in the final of the Asia Cup in 2003 and now in 2023, i.e. for the second time. Pakistan hockey team was earlier successful in winning the silver medal in 2009. Pakistan also won silver medals in 1999 and 2003. South Korea won the Asia Cup in 1994, 1999, 2009, 2013 and 2022. The Malaysian team has certainly managed to win the silver medal twice in 2017 and 2022, but they have not been able to win the Asia Cup title so far.

 It is worth noting that the Pakistan Junior Hockey Team has increased the interest of Pakistani fans in hockey overnight with its outstanding performance. On the other hand, the Pakistan Hockey Federation is facing major problems, especially the lack of funds and sponsorship, along with the players are facing jobs and career problems. The Pakistan Hockey Federation had sought funds from the Pakistan Sports Board for the event to be held in Salalah, Oman. However, as of the time of writing, those funds have reportedly not been received. While the administrator of DHA Lahore, Waheed Gul Sati, had supported the funds of the junior national team for the Asia Cup, after which the junior national team was able to participate in the Asia Cup and then was able to qualify the World Cup.

Published in The Daily National Courier, June, 10 2023

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