Daily Times

KARACHI: Hockey legend Floris Jan Bovelander has suggested that a proper infrastructure and system should be developed for Pakistani players to improve the quality of the sport in Pakistan. Bovelander, who is in Pakistan on an invitation from the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) for the Hall of Fame induction, told media that reluctance to adopt changes in hockey is one of the reasons for the decline of the sport in Asian countries. “Pakistan and India played same style of hockey. India noticed it 10 years ago and they are building their game for 10 years now. They picked up and they are back again. Pakistan should do the same, it will take a couple of years,” he said. The veteran, who has played 241 international matches, said that while Pakistan wanted to reclaim its former glory, the Pakistan Hockey Federation needed to do a lot of hard work to do so.

“Hockey is developing…some countries have come up while other have gone down,” he said. “Hopefully Pakistan will pick-up again and become one of the better teams. I think the spirit is Pakistan is good and I believe that hockey is still alive here. To become a good solid top team there might be some changes that are necessary,” he highlighted. Emphasizing on the need to have proper infrastructure at the grass root level, the Atlanta Olympic gold medalist said the PHF should develop teams at different levels under the national team. The former Dutch star also noted that Pakistan was not producing hockey heroes and that was the reason it had become difficult for people here to encourage youngsters to pick hockey. He also highlighted the fact that hockey has changed in the last 30 years and Pakistan must catch up with steps taken by other countries to promote hockey.

Published in Daily Times, January 19^th 2018.