KARACHI: The year 2026 is crucial for Pakistan hockey that has endured many crises on and off the field for ages.

After a gap of eight years, the national team finally made it to this year’s World Cup, by reaching the final of a qualifying event in Ismailia, Egypt during March. Following the World Cup, Pakistan are set to lock horns with their continental rivals in the Asian Games scheduled to be staged in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan during Sept­ember-October.

Pakistan, the former four-time World Cup winners, lost the decider in Ismailia 4-1 to England, the same team whom the Green-shirts will be facing in the pool stage of the World Cup being co-hosted by Belgium and the Netherlands from Aug 15 to 30.

So, the challenge for Pakistan looks massive particularly when one glances at the prevailing state of affairs in the national game.

Head coach stays upbeat ahead of this year’s World Cup

However, Manzoor-ul-Hassan Senior, the recently-appointed head coach of the national senior team, remains optimistic about Pakistan’s show in the forthcoming World Cup.

“In my opinion, the current Pakistan team contains six, seven players who can be ranked among the world’s top players. They have the capability to perform [well] in any [top-level] international event,” Manzoor, who replaced Khawaja Junaid after the Ismailia event, said in an exclusive interview with Dawn.

“Nothing is impossible in sports, as it depends on how a team performs on a given day,” the member of Pakistan’s bronze-medal winning squad at the 1976 Olympics added.

“As regards the World Cup, the players’ hard work will be crucial. I, as the head coach, will try my best to facilitate them in every way so that they can focus fully on the game and perform to the best of their abilities.”

Interestingly, the head coach responding to a query asserted that Pakistan’s main focus, above everything, was on qualifying for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

“Definitely my and the team’s aim is to give our best in the World Cup. However, our main target is to play the [2026] Asian Games final in order to qualify for the Olympic Games,” he said.

“Time has come for Pakistan to start producing legendary Olympians again; in this regard we have an extremely rich legacy which should be revived.”

On what steps the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) was planning to take for building mental strength of the players, Manzoor said that it depended on a player’s calibre.

“If a player is talented, and succeeds in keeping his performance above average for the first couple of years in any global-level contest, he sooner or later embarks on a journey in international competition,” the coach stated.

“We, on our part, will try to engage and groom players of national senior and junior teams, or other players who have been part of national training camps during the past five years or so in order to develop a solid pool of campaigners to secure the future of Pakistan hockey.”

Answering a question on Pakistan’s strategy for the World Cup, the 74-year-old coach elaborated a plan.

“We held trials in Karachi, Lahore and Peshawar [for national senior and junior tea­ms] last month, in which some 200 players appeared. On the basis of these trials, we will now select a certain number of players who will participate in a national camp during the first week of May,” the head coach added.

“In this camp, we will be concentrating on polishing the best available talent in Pakistan to prepare them for the World Cup.”

PRO LEAGUE BENEFICIAL

Manzoor insisted that Pakistan’s participation in the FIH Pro League during the month of June would benefit them ahead of the 16-team global event.

“Unfortunately, Pakistan have not won a major international title since clinching the World Cup way back in 1994. Moreover, we did not play [enough] international games abroad after that, and kept on competing mostly in second-tier events,” he said.

“We did not participate in the Pro League [that started in 2019] either. Now we are going to compete in the final leg of this year’s Pro League [before the World Cup] in Belgium and England where our team will play eight matches, two each against Spain, Belgium, England and India.

“Whereas other top-level teams have played 70 odd matches which gives them much more exposure to world-class competition.

“Still these eight [Pro Lea­g­ue] outings will benefit us in our preparations for the World Cup.

“No doubt, the World Cup is very tough but there is no need to be disappointed. Playing in the Pro League before the World Cup will be a golden opportunity for us,” he maintained.

Here it is pertinent to mention that Pakistan lost all their matches of the first two legs — held in Argentina and Australia — of the ongoing Pro League season.

DEEP DEFENCE A CONCERN

Giving his view on Pakistan’s weak area, the head coach pointed out that the team’s defence needed improvement.

“Looking at Pakistan’s previous matches of the 2025-26 Pro League, I reckon deep defence is our team’s weak area. If we scored [even] three goals in a match, we conceded four,” Manzoor underlined.

“This will be addressed by the coaches in the training camp being held [in Lahore] for the World Cup.”

When highlighted that Pakistan qualified for the World Cup by beating relatively easier opponents, like China, Japan, Malaysia and Austria in Ismailia, but suffered a big loss at the hands of England in the final, the head coach sounded technical.

“Undoubtedly, the 4-1 loss was a bad result but of those four goals, two were made due to [inadvertent] deflections of our players. [Still] mistakes like these in a high-profile game prove costly, as happened in the Ismailia [final],” said Manzoor while disagreeing that China, Japan and Malaysia were weaker opponents.

“Our players have the potential [to compete]. However, utilising that potential at the right time is the key.”

Pakistan, the head coach emphasised, were competing against world’s prominent teams like Australia, Germany, Belgium, Spain, England and India in the 2025-26 Pro League, which he termed “a very good step” by the PHF for the better future of the country.

Published in Dawn, May 3rd, 2026