2019 — Pakistan hockey’s Annus Horriblis

Muhammad Ali



The year 2019 proved to be Pakistan hockey’s Annus Horriblis. The year will go down as one of another darkest chapter in the history of Pakistan hockey. Pakistan’s failure to qualify for the second successive Olympics marks a calamitous new low. Worryingly, there is little to suggest that 2020 will be less challenging. The agonising reality is that Pakistan hockey has acquired a ‘loser’ image in world hockey and become a synonym for defeat, mediocrity and failure. It is now the Sick Man of global hockey and it’s incorrigible and confirmed Pauper. It has reached its nadir. After their failure to make the grade in the Rio Olympic Games in 2016, the hopes that Pakistan harboured for the Tokyo Olympics 2020 were dashed in October 2019 when the Netherlands crushed them 6-1 in the second qualifier to confirm their berth at the Olympics 2020. Though Pakistan did show some spark in the first qualifier when they had held hosts Holland to a 4-4 draw, but the Green Shirts were no match in the second. The failure to qualify for the second Olympics in a row, perhaps, is the final nail in the coffin of Pakistan hockey.