Sunday 29 / September / 2024
While football is, of course, a passion among many in the Sultanate, this week there is another sport on display that has nearly a century of history in the country. Of late, hockey may have been a sleeper sport in Oman, but it is now making a comeback, with Asia’s most prestigious tournament currently underway in the nation.
“It’s green, and it’s got a goal at the end of either side of it.”
If you live in Oman, or dare we say, most parts of the world, you’d be justified for thinking the phrase above described a football pitch, and you’d be right... for the most part.
The Asian Champions Trophy features host Oman, alongside world champions India, Asian champions Japan and Asian Games runners-up Malaysia, as well as Pakistan and Korea.
With the Hockey World Cup just one month away, the tournament is being billed as a warm-up to the showpiece event. But for Oman, the Asian Champions Trophy will see the Sultanate take centre stage.
For one, all of the teams’ games have, and will, take place at the Sultan Qaboos Sports Complex in Boushar. Home to a multitude of sports facilities, including football, tennis and hockey, the centre’s hockey arena was given an extensive makeover to meet international specifications that were in keeping with Oman’s qualifying to host the tournament.
Regarding Oman hosting the tournament, Dato Tayyab Ikram, Chief Executive of the Asian Hockey Federation and Chairman of the Olympic Federation for International Hockey, said, “I don’t think Oman is not known as a hockey-playing nation, because for me Oman has a history of hockey across more than 80 years,” he told T weekly.
“In the Middle East, we call Oman a real organic country in terms of hockey. It has a history and it is the only country in the Middle East where local Omanis have taken up hockey.
“The national federations need to apply for hosting these tournaments after assuring the Asian Hockey Federation that they can meet these criteria,” he added. “The conditions are that the venue should be an international venue. We set very clear goals, and we also take a different approach with regards to how we develop hockey in different regions, because we didn’t just take steps to organise this Champions’ Trophy, but also promoted the sport across the whole Middle East.”
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“The venues are always good, but to make them compatible for international standards you need to work,” said Dato Ikram.
“Our technical team and our broadcasters and stakeholders all worked as a team to make this hockey stadium into an international venue. We needed to convert the facility into an international one. So there is a history here and we have very strong relationships with Oman as a stakeholder, which is important not just in the Middle East, but for Asia, as well.
“There was a bidding process involved to host this tournament, and Oman was involved in this process and they successfully bid for it,” he noted.
“There were certain requirements that you need to fulfil to host such a tournament, from the commercial side, the athletes’ side and the best possible conditions for everyone to perform.”
But to the Asian Hockey Federation, organising a sporting event is not just about winning, medals and trophies. Sports, after all, contain the great power of unification, and has the ability to unite people across different cultures and countries. That is the true power of sports. In keeping with the Sultanate’s national identity of being a nation founded on principles of peace, it has always looked to foster lasting, friendly relations between all nations.
“On behalf of all six teams, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the Oman government, with a special thanks to the Ministry of Sports Affairs,” said Dato Ikram.
“It is a great pleasure for me to be back in my second home. I don’t just say this, but I have proved it, as well, and in the presence of high-level diplomats, I would like to say that this is the power of sports.
“Today, to me, it is a defining moment. What is happening in the moment across the globe? What are the threats facing our generation? What are the challenges for the future generation? I am here, speaking not just to give thanks to all the hockey federations, but for all of the world’s sportsmen,” he added.
“There is definitely an interest in hockey that we see here. The Middle East is a blend of everything, because it is not just Middle Easterners who live here, but many expatriates from other countries, as well, so we approached organising the tournament as a package.
“The unity that is needed in sports is seldom required across any other field of work. There is, after all, no ‘I’ in ‘team’. Yes, there is the word ‘me’, but that has been jumbled so that the world ‘team’ can be made. The lesson here, is that the team always comes first, and there is no place for individual egos.
“Teams are professionally prepared, and they know what the physical and mental demands are, as well as their performance criteria, so this is no more the case,” said Dato Ikram. “If someone is not meeting that high-performance criteria, then of course there is a danger involved, whether it is in hockey or any other sport.”
But if all the elements of the team have to come together to ensure that their performances reflect results that are the product of a team then off-field success is also governed in unison.
Talib Al Wahabi, the president of the Oman Hockey Association, said this event would not have become a success without the various sporting organs who pooled their resources together to make the Asian Champions Trophy happen.
“We hope all the teams have had, and will have, a nice time with the Oman Hockey Association, and we will help them to create fond memories here,” he said.
“I thank all the government offices in Oman who coordinated this game, and made life easy for us. I would like to express my thanks to the Royal Oman Police, Ministry of Sports, Olympic Association of Oman and the press, who were there all the time during this successful event.
“To the players, I say, you are in a very peaceful country of the world,” he added. “You don’t need to worry about anything here. You are at home. We have enjoyed seeing them performing well in hockey without worries, as our people have waited to see all the teams. The Indian and Pakistani communities have especially waited for a long time to see their teams play.
“We are very proud to have welcomed our guests to Oman. It is a big thing for hockey in Oman to host such a big event of this magnitude. We now have with us in Oman the hockey superstars of Asia.”
The six teams participating are using this as a stage to not just hone the tactics of their teams ahead of the World Cup, but have also been using it to build greater squad unity, and integrate new teams into their national setups.
“The audience has been waiting for this tournament for the last eight months, because this gives them the opportunity to see their heroes play in Oman,” said Al Wahaibi.
“For this kind of an event to come to Oman is important for the spectators, who have been waiting to see their superstars perform on the turf of Sultan Qaboos Sports Complex. This type of tournament is actually a big boost for Omani hockey. Oman has been involved in hockey for the last century, but we have fallen back or gone back, and football has now overtaken us. But hockey has maintained itself, within a number of countries.”
One of the players who is leading from the front, is Pakistan captain Muhammad Rizwan Sr. Born on New Year’s Eve 1989, he is the player his fellow countrymen look to in times of need, and given the national expectations back home, Rizwan hopes to deliver in equal measure.
But funny enough, hockey wasn’t Rizwan Sr.’s first, or even second-choice sport. As it is with many children in South Asia, he grew up playing cricket in his village.
A competent spinner, Rizwan then switched to football, before finding his passion when he picked up a hockey stick. As media partners, Times of Oman was able to get up close with him to ask about what drove him to play better.
“I was not a hockey player at the beginning. I began playing sports when I got into cricket at the age of seven, though I remember playing in my school final,” he recalled.
“I was a spinner and I was punished for three sixes in a single over of the final, and I felt that I was to blame for my school losing that game. I left it after that and took up football, but I kept wondering what this game was, because I kept getting pushed around and hit a lot of the time.
“The setup for football at the time wasn’t professional,” added Rizwan Sr. “Many of us didn’t even have proper shoes to wear or proper pitches to play on, so it became a sport about who was stronger, and that is not the way any sport should be played.
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“Sport is about physical, as well as mental strength, yes, but it is also about technical skill. I kept getting injured because I was playing barefoot and kept falling on sharp stones and pieces of broken glass, so it was really dangerous. I thought I’d better stop because it was simply too dangerous to carry on.
“Shortly afterwards I joined the army, and when I was there I was introduced to hockey. I fell in love with the game and have not looked back since then. I am extremely fortunate that ever since I’d first been called up to represent my country, I have not been dropped, and it is truly an honour for me to captain this side.”
Watching from the side-lines are many hockey enthusiasts who have waited a long time to see their heroes in person. With tickets priced affordably, many have made use of this opportunity to watch some of the world’s finest players.
Roger D’Souza, an Indian expat in the Sultanate, had gone to see all of India’s games with his wife and son. “I am from that part of India where hockey is a passion,” he said.
“My family has a lot of people with military backgrounds, so they always tell us stories about the legendary Dhyan Chand. I want to pass on the same passion that I have for hockey to my son so he will know what it is like to see our national sport.”
Mansour Rahman, a Pakistani national from Lahore, added, “when we grew up, we used to watch legendary players like Shahbaz Ahmed play for our country, and he was part of one of the best teams we ever had.
“Today, he is one of the top men at the Pakistan Hockey Association, so I am sure he will pass on his ideas to the current group of players.”
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Players to watch out for Seren Tanaka (Japan)
One of the key players in Japan’s triumphant Asian Games campaign, 25-year-old Tanaka scored the equaliser for Japan in the Asian Games final against South East Asian rivals Malaysia. Also a part of the Japan squad that came to Oman to take on the Sultanate and Pakistan earlier this year, Tanaka’s experience will count for much for Japan, who are heavily modified from the team that played at the Asian Games.
Dilpreet Singh (India)
Scored his first goal at the Asian Champions Trophy against Pakistan, and the 18-year-old has a bright future predicted for him. He has already represented his country more than 30 times, most recently at the 2018 Asian Games as part of the team that came in third.
He also featured heavily at the international Hockey Champions Trophy in Breda in the Netherlands in 2018.
Kumar Subramaniam (Malaysia)
It’s true what they say about goalkeepers. They tend to last a lot, lot longer than their outfield counterparts. 38-year-old Kumar is probably the elder statesman at the Asian Champions Trophy, and has 12 medals to his name, two of which were gold medals he picked up at the Southeast Asian Games in Bandar Seri Begawan (1999) and Kuala Lumpur (2017).
However, he’s never played at a World Cup and will be drawing on his vast experience to ensure Malaysia receive a proper proving ground ahead of next month’s event.
Fahad Al Noufali (Oman)
Part of the Omani squad that has been part of an intense training camp held by the Oman Hockey Association, Fahad Al Noufali was one of those who was given the all-clear by the OHA as being fit to play a starring role for Oman in the future. The tournament will be another opportunity for the Sultanate to impress on the big stage, and Al Noufali is likely to be an integral part of that team.
Muhammad Rizwan Jr (Pakistan)
He may share his name with the Pakistan captain, but Muhammad Rizwan Jr is a completely different sort of player. He won a bronze medal at the 2012 Champions Trophy in Melbourne and finished runners-up four years ago in Bhubaneswar, Rizwan Jr has played nearly 50 times for Pakistan and is expected to be a mainstay of the team. The midfielder was also part of the 2012 London Olympics and 2017 Asia Cup squads.
Kim Ki-Hoon (Korea)
Korea have traditionally done well at the Asian Games, with four golds, a silver and two bronze medals, but hasn’t performed at the same level at the World Cup. The closest they came to a podium finish was when they finished fourth in 2002 (Malaysia) and 2006 (Germany). However, Korea is in the midst of a hockey surge, due to interest it developed during the Winter Olympics, and registration numbers for the sport are up more than 50% since 2012. Kim and his teammates’ performances here could point the way forward for the next generation of players.
