Once upon a time – there was a hockey champion named Pakistan

The untold story of Pakistan’s Hockey Triumph

Last year, Pakistan, a four-time champion, failed to qualify for the 2023 Hockey World Cup, highlighting the grim state of the country’s national sport. With limited funding and minimal interest from decision-makers, Pakistan’s hockey has been on a continuous decline and now it is almost in intensive care unit (ICU)

Mohammed Shahbaz, the superstar of the 90s and former captain of Pakistan, recounts the tale of the rise and fall of the 1994 World Hockey Cup. There are numerous insights to be gleaned for hockey enthusiasts in the country, if only they would heed the lessons.

The 1994 FIH World Hockey Cup was more than just a tournament; it presented a golden opportunity for once-dominant hockey nations like India and Pakistan to reclaim their former glory. Thirty years have passed since this story began, on a February evening in 1994, when Shahbaz Senior, the captain of the Pakistani hockey team, was invited to a TV show. During the interview, Shahbaz, with a tinge of nostalgia, mentioned that it was his final year in the sport and that both the Champions Trophy and the World Cup were scheduled for that year. He expressed his desire for Pakistan to emerge victorious in both tournaments under his leadership.

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Whoever heard his sentence laughed. Pakistan once champion, had last won the World Cup twelve years ago and the Champions Trophy fourteen years ago. The world was dominated by teams like Holland, Germany, and Australia. We had suffered defeats recently, even in the Olympics, and Korea had given us a tough time in the Asian Games. The hockey team’s conditions were quite dire, so it could be said that the captain’s wish was merely wishful thinking.

What happened in the next ten months seems a Hollywood movie. It is a chapter of hockey history that, had it occurred in any other good country, would have inspired dozens of films by now. Pakistan won both tournaments under Shahbaz’s leadership, and in those matches, Pakistan played such hockey that describing and witnessing it is like the distance between heaven and earth. The viewer witnessed all these events firsthand, from Shahbaz’s interviews to witnessing the trophies being lifted. It’s a story so captivating that films, novels, and dramas would fall short to convey.

But now million dollar question is that has anyone among you heard this story before?

Why not? We remember every moment of cricket’s World Cup, but why hasn’t this story been told?

Why hasn’t anyone made a documentary about it?

Shahbaz Senior, Khawaja Junaid, Waseem Feroze, Kamran Ashraf, all these people are alive. Why don’t they tell this story themselves? This is the most thrilling sports story of this country, yet it’s not mentioned anywhere.

It’s a game of projection to the world. Whoever sells themselves well succeeds. Shahbaz Senior sits quietly in a small office. The rest are coaching teams in some department or have moved up to administrative positions in their departments. No one mentions a year like this, where at the beginning, a man said in a wistful tone that he wanted to conquer the world, and then he did exactly what he said. Sometimes I think if the video of that interview were found, we’d know at what moment Shahbaz said those words because such a moment of acceptance doesn’t come again, at least not in my opinion.