When people talk about hockey, India’s golden era is often the first thing that comes to mind. Led by legends such as Dhyan Chand, Balbir Singh Sr. and several others, the Indian team established itself as a powerhouse of the sport, winning eight Olympic gold medals and one World Cup.
Yet, even in an era when India ruled the hockey world, there was one team that stood out as their fiercest rival. And you don’t have to look too far to find them.
It was the men in green, Pakistan.
It is a little difficult to fathom at this moment. But let’s lay out the stats, shall we?
Pakistan won three Olympic gold medals in 1960 in Rome, 1968 in Mexico City and 1984 in Los Angeles, threatening India’s monopoly on hockey. But the glory doesn’t stop there for them. They were the inaugural World Cup champions in 1971 in Barcelona and then added three more, including their 1982 triumph in Mumbai.
For Tauqeer Dar, those were days when Pakistan ruled the hockey world. Born into a family with a hockey legacy, Dar’s father, Munir, and his uncle, Tanvir, were Olympic champions, and so was he. So when we wanted to know what it was like to see the men in green at the time, there was no one better to explain it.
“It was a dream. That was like Brazil’s dominance in football. That’s the only way you can compare it. And the era started from ’56 at Melbourne and ended in Sydney in ’94. There was a brief period of 10 years between 84 and 94, where there was a slump, but we bounced back and won the World Cup in Sydney,” an emotional Dar remembered.
Ijaz Chaudhry, a journalist who has written extensively about hockey for Dawn and Tribune, also said that finishing without the gold medal at the Olympics or without the World Cup trophy wasn’t an option for Pakistan.
“Finishing second in the World Cup and Olympics meant disaster,” said Ijaz.
And their brand of hockey’s influence transcended sports disciplines. During the football World Cup in 1978, Argentina brought home the football World Cup, but they were inspired by the Pakistan hockey team.
The 1978 Hockey World Cup was held in Buenos Aires. A few months later, Argentina hosted the football World Cup and went on to win the title, Dar recalled.
“So then Argentine coach Cesar Luis Menotti was asked why we had seen a different strategy from him. He used his wingers and his centre-forward to score most of the time. Mario Kempes was the centre-forward at that time.
“So, he replied that he watched the Hockey World Cup, all the matches played by Pakistan, and followed their strategy. And he thanked them for that,” said Dar.
This story was also confirmed by Ijaz, who said the then Pakistan team manager, Waheed Khan, received a telegram in Karachi from Menotti. The Argentina coach acknowledged that the Pakistan hockey team’s tactics had proved very useful to him and his World Cup-winning squad.
The legacy that Pakistan has in the World Cup extends beyond their achievements on the field. They were also one of the reasons why the tournament exists.
Pakistan’s legendary sports administrator, the late Air Marshal Nur Khan, played a pivotal role in the creation of the Hockey World Cup.
During his tenure as president of the Pakistan Hockey Federation, he advised the International Hockey Federation (FIH) that hockey needed a World Cup to increase people’s interest in the game, arguing that one global tournament at the Olympics was not enough.
The FIH eventually accepted Pakistan’s proposal, paving the way for the World Cup. Pakistan also donated the magnificent World Cup trophy, made up of gold, silver, ivory and teak wood.
That makes Pakistan’s absence at the top of the game today all the more depressing.
By this point, you will probably be wondering what happened to the green sticks. A quick look at the rankings and their recent performances kind of sums it up.
Pakistan are ranked 12th in the world and, in the nine-team FIH Pro League 2025-26, they finished dead last, losing all their 16 matches with a goal difference of -57.
In fact, since that 1994 World Cup win, they have made it to the Olympic semi-finals just once, in 2000. After that, they have never made it anywhere close to contesting for medals and failed to qualify for three editions of the Olympics from 2016 to 2024.
In the World Cup, they have never made it to the semi-finals since their win in 1994 and their appearance at this year’s event will be the first since 2018.
Pakistan hockey has remained in the news for all the wrong reasons. The India-Pakistan rivalry, which once dominated world hockey, isn’t even a contest now. India have been unbeaten against Pakistan for over 10 years.
There has been a pay dispute that put the players on the brink of a boycott. Then the turmoil in Pakistan hockey culminated with the men’s team being stranded in Australia and having to look after themselves as they didn’t receive any backing from their own federation.
And hours before leaving for their World Cup assignment, they found out that their head coach Herman Kruis wasn’t actually going to be in that role. He would be an advisor to the federation, while goalkeeping coach Bob Johan Veldhof would be elevated to the role.
In my conversations with Ijaz and their former coach Siegfried Aikman, I raised the questions and their response was the same.
“Turmoil isn’t a surprise when it comes to Pakistan hockey.”
So how did the once mighty green sticks fall? Is it due to the skill of their players, the federation, or are there other factors? So we took a look across the border to see what happened to the beautiful game of hockey and how a giant got reduced in size.
ABSENCE OF A SYLLABUS
The thing with modern hockey is that it constantly changes. It’s almost like the game when you watch it. Everything happens fast, every second counts, and each moment is a chance to change the game.
This forced everyone to change and adapt to the modern style. But Pakistan, or rather their Olympians, felt it was best to remain in the days of the past.
Aikman had come to Pakistan with the aim of changing the game in 2021. He said he had a long-term plan to update them to the modern ways of hockey. But he was met with pushback.
“Nowadays, hockey’s changed a lot, and it’s about technical, physical, mental, and social aspects. It’s about sports science, a lot about sports science. It’s about other training methods. It’s about another technical approach.”
“They still play with the left outside, left inside, centre forward, right inside, right forward. 1 centre half, 2, left and right back, and two centre halves, centre backs. So that system doesn’t work anymore,” said Aikman.
The Dutch coach presented his ideas, but everyone wanted instant results. But no one was ready to change the syllabus of hockey across the country.
“I presented the ideas to the federation, they were enthusiastic. They said, we want to go for this long-term goal.
“But as soon, because they need to manage the press, they need to manage expectations. They need to manage the Olympians. The Olympians are really terrible because they are killing everything,” said Aikman.
PROBLEM WITH EX-OLYMPIANS?
Dar also agreed with Aikman and explained how the Olympians have been an issue and have not allowed the game to grow with modern methods.
“They don’t want to go to the ground. They don’t want to see each other in school. They don’t want to be pushing hockey in their town, but they want to become the national coach. They want to become the selectors.”
“So how many coaches and how many selectors can Pakistan hockey have?” said Dar.
The Olympic legend was adamant that if the syllabus doesn’t change for Pakistan hockey, and there isn’t a uniform one in the country, the players will remain confused as they move from junior to senior level.
“We have to change the structure. We have to have one syllabus in the country.”
“The problem is in every town, every city, there is a coach who’s an Olympic gold medallist or a world champion. He has got his own books, and he teaches a syllabus to a boy.”
“When he comes from the town to the urban areas, the next coach says, what the hell have you been studying? Here is a new book. And this is the syllabus for you.”
“So when you move from junior team to senior team, there’s another. I feel sorry for the players. They don’t have a clue what the structure is that they have to follow because there are 100 structures in the field right now,” said Dar.
The problem with this was also narrated by Aikman, who still feels he is watching the hockey of the 80s when he sees a game of Pakistan. He also pointed out how the emphasis is just kept on the goalscorers and nothing else. Something he has seen India bypass to become a strong team again.
“The state tournaments are still like you watch the hockey of the eighties. Because that’s what the players learn in the academies.”
“They learn Ajao Ajao Ajao. You get the ball, you run. Then what,? Who do we recognise? They recognise the goal scorers.”
“The goal scorers are mostly the MVP of the match. Never a good defender. Never someone who is a good midfielder and makes it possible, a player like Hardik Singh. He will never be the MVP in Pakistan.”
“Now in India, those players also become MVPs. Now Harmanpreet can be a MVP. In the past, that was impossible.”
“It was about the PC flicker. The PCs who scored the most goals get the most compliments, but Pakistan forget that you need an injector. You need a trapper. It should be in rhythm.”
“So if you only recognise the flicker, then the other players will. They don’t have the willingness to sacrifice everything to make someone else big and rich,” said Aikman.
DOMESTIC STRUCTURE IN RUINS
Another aspect that Dar pointed out was how the domestic structure was, right from the time of partition, probably the best in the world and provided the players with a sense of security.
“When I say that Pakistan’s domestic structure was the best, when you read Australian cricket, you first talk about the domestic structure. When you talk about English cricket, you talk about the counties, right?”
“This is what Pakistan hockey was providing.”
“We had pillars. After partition, we have pillars like police, railways and army. And after we won the gold at Rome, more institutions came in and hockey was declared the national game of Pakistan by General Ayub Khan.”
“More institutions want to own hockey teams, you know, they want to have the name attached with Pakistan hockey. So then came Pakistan Customs. They made a team. Then came all the banks, steel mills, WAPDA and PIA after all. When these two organisations, Pakistan Customs and PIA came in, hockey made great strides.,” said Dar.
The Olympian remembers how the teams would battle it out and have incredible rivalries, but more importantly, they provided the players with jobs and security.
“Every hockey player had no worries about bread and butter in his home. He had all focus on hockey, and he was, he was, everybody knew about him in society,” said Dar.
But this very system, the envy of many hockey teams, was hit hard by austerity coming in after 1994. This led to the collapse of the teams and now, they don’t exist. With this went the jobs and security, forcing current players to be on contracts rather than being professional players.
And at the same time, all around the globe, you have countries like India giving players a sense of security. Stars like Manpreet Singh work with the Punjab Police when they aren’t involved with hockey.
“If Pakistan was the only professional team in the world a few decades ago, now they are the only amateur team in the world,” said Dar.
Another reason that Ijaz pointed out was how bogus clubs started to make their way into the sport, just so that the federation could show numbers.
“While clubs were keeping hockey alive till the recent past, that scene too is no longer what it was. In Lahore, only six or seven ‘genuine’ clubs are active, though the Lahore district hockey association would claim there are more than 20.”
“While the district inter-club hockey tournament would also show as many clubs participating as claimed by the district hockey association, the fact of the matter is that the ‘fake’ clubs raise teams solely for the championships. The office bearers in district hockey associations are only interested in clinging to their posts mainly through votes of these fake clubs,” said Ijaz.
All of this has caused people to not look at hockey as a lucrative option compared to cricket. The kits for the game aren’t subsidised by the government, meaning that people and academies are left to fend for themselves.
Dar, who runs the most successful Dar Hockey Academy, revealed how it is tough to source graphite hockey sticks and kits for the players.
“Hockey right now is the most expensive team game in the world that I know because I am at the ground every day.”
“I have to buy hockey sticks for my kids. I have to buy the shoes, you know. I have to buy the goalkeeping kits, so I know how much that costs.”
“An Obo goalkeeping kit that costs you 1500 dollars. So if it is not subsidised at some place or time, how can you become a hockey player?”
“There is not a single logic in my country right now that I should send my son to play hockey,” said Dar.
THE PHF ISSUE
Yet, no story about the state of Pakistan hockey is complete without the Pakistan Hockey Federation.The PHF has been at the centre of all the controversies related to the sport in the country and has single-handedly ensured that no sponsors get attached to them.
Aikman revealed how he wasn’t paid after just months into the job and still hasn’t received his payment to date.
“I had a long-term contract after half a year, they didn’t pay me any more. I stayed there one more year, and after that I quit. I said, guys, if you don’t pay me, I cannot keep doing the work. So I left Pakistan, and I’m still waiting for my money. It never came and it will never come, I think,” said Aikman.
He recalled how during the 2022 Commonwealth Games, the players didn’t have even the basic facilities at their disposal.
“We lacked equipment. We went to the Commonwealth Games and we prepared with 18 Kookaburra balls. We didn’t have GPS trackers. We had nothing. We didn’t have access to a normal gym during training,” said Aikman.
And the rot starts from the very top. PHF has been embroiled in several claims of money being embezzled by office bearers.
During the 2017 to 2018 period, a women’s team camp cost PHF two million Pakistan rupees, according to Dawn. Official PHF documents show that Olympian Saeed Khan served as the manager of the training camp, with the bill summary also carrying his signature.
But in a shocking twist, Khan claimed that he never even knew about such a camp and that it wasn’t even his own signature.
During the 2020 to 2021 audit by the Pakistan Sports Board, it was revealed that a hefty Rs100 million was drawn in cash from the bank accounts of the PHF.
The Pakistan prime minister has the discretionary power to appoint anyone as the chief of the PHF and in other big roles. Often, these calls have led to people without any knowledge of the game coming in and leaving with their pockets filled.
When Asif Bajwa took over as secretary of the Pakistan Hockey Federation in 2008, he reportedly arrived at the federation’s Lahore office in a rickshaw. By the time his tenure ended in 2013, claims emerged that he had acquired a Land Cruiser, several properties across Pakistan and substantial wealth.
He was also accused of involvement in human smuggling and of operating a purportedly fictitious company, Hassan Enterprises, alongside his brother in law. According to the allegations, around 30 per cent of PHF grants was allegedly channelled to Hassan Enterprises as commission, while large sums were reportedly withdrawn in cash.
It has further been alleged that Bajwa withdrew approximately Rs52 crore in cash from PHF accounts during his first stint and another Rs22 crore during his second tenure. Such withdrawals were reportedly contrary to the PHF’s financial regulations, which required payments and withdrawals of this nature to be made through crossed cheques.
Even the last PHF president, Tariq Bugti, who banned former captain Ammad Shakeel Butt for talking about the Australia fiasco, was appointed by interim PM Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar. The reason being both men were from Balochistan.
This led to the state that Pakistan finds itself in, according to Ijaz.
“Incompetent people, insincere people whose sole objective was to just to spend time as the president or secretary, right, and make merry. They did embezzlement, corruption, and just to make the trips. They were totally insincere to the cause that is Pakistan hockey,” said Ijaz.
THE WAY FORWARD
With the general feeling that Pakistan needs a change in hockey, it was Ijaz who said that there are movements being made in the right direction.
He claimed that there is interest in bringing a league in the form of the Hockey India League into the country. He revealed that there has been interest from some of the Pakistan Super League owners to come into play if a league comes to fruition.
“A hockey league modelled on the PSL is feasible. Indeed, some owners of PSL franchises have already expressed interest in purchasing hockey teams, should such a competition be launched.”
“The 2026 PSL lasted less than seven weeks, leaving a substantial window in the sporting calendar for a national hockey league. The success of the franchise-based Hockey India League demonstrates the potential of such a model. The presence of foreign stars and quality coaches has contributed significantly to the revival of Indian hockey. A similar competition could transform Pakistan hockey,” said Ijaz.
He also said that the game can improve not just on the field, but also off it, with the glitz and glamour bringing in eyeballs.
Dar also agreed to this, saying that it will give financial security to the players, which is keeping them from performing at their optimum.
“That is one of the main factors we are missing right now. That is what is needed. A hockey league is needed. We had a hockey league in 2005, but we were unable to continue that.”
“Had it been continued from that point, you’d have been in the top 4 again. The problem lies that we don’t address the main root cause.”
“Well, the boy who is representing your country, if he’s mentally not secured, and he’s all the time thinking about the finances, what is happening at his home, the food of his parents, how can he perform right?” said Dar.
So, the path is now set for Pakistan hockey, but the big test will come at the World Cup. They will face India on August 19, and it seems everyone already feels it is a foregone conclusion.
Dar, though, signed off with a reminder that an India-Pakistan contest has a life of its own. Records and past results count for little once the two teams step onto the field.
“I believe the India-Pakistan match is a different ball game. It is on the day.”
“It has got nothing to do with the records, what happened last month or last week. It is on the day.”
“It is more of a temperament game, and I wish and pray that Pakistan do well,” said Dar.
Aikman, however, was far less optimistic about Pakistan’s chances. Yet, it was something else he said that stayed with me, and, in many ways, echoed the larger point of this story.
“Hockey needs a strong Pakistan too. A strong India and a strong Pakistan is needed for the sport because otherwise it becomes a western show,” said Aikman.
– Ends
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