Pakistan have a mountain to climb in India

PAKISTAN are the only team to have lifted the hockey World Cup title four times.

And the statistics are not about to change this year, judging by the standard of the national squad.

Ranked 13th in the world, Pakistan have been struggling to turn their fortunes around.

Pakistan team manager Sardar Hasan, who won the 1982 World Cup in Bombay and gold in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, said Pakistan used to be the world’s hockey powerhouse. Sadly, he said the sport is dying a slow death in Pakistan following a series of poor results in international tournaments.

“The hockey culture has declined due to a series of poor results in competitions and today only a few schoolchildren are interested in playing the game,” said Sardar.

“To make things worse, there is not much money in hockey and we hardly organise any domestic hockey competition back home. The only competition we organise this year was the national championships.

“Our grassroot development is also stagnant and we cannot organise any international tournaments in Pakistan due to the political situation.”

Pakistan are back for the 13th time in the World Cup after failing to qualify for the last edition at The Hague, Holland four years ago.

They also failed to qualify for the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics.

For the record, Pakistan were champions of the World Cup in Barcelona (1971), Buenos Aires (1978), Bombay (1982) and Sydney (1994).

As for their chances in Bhubaneswar, Sardar said being lowest ranked team in the Group D, the challenge would be on them to defy the odds to finish top three to qualify for the second round.

They will open their campaign against two-time world champions Germany today. The other teams in their group are world No. 4 Holland and 12th ranked Malaysia.

Sardar said there is always pressure playing in the World Cup as their fans expect them to win in the World Cup.