Zubair Qureshi
Chairman of the High Education Commission (HEC) Dr Mukhtar Ahmed at a reception he hosted in honour of the Dutch hockey club (OHC Bully) and the HEC hockey team recalled the days in 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s when the Pakistani nation used to be crazy about hockey and some great matches were played in those days between the Pakistan and its arch rival, The Netherlands teams.
Then Pakistan won the World Cup cricket in 1992 and the rest is history.
The reception turned out to be a get together of academicians, diplomats and hockey’s former greats and among others who attended the dinner, were the Charge d’Affaires of the Romanian Embassy Eduard Preda, High Commissioner of Australia Neil Hawkins, Executive Director HEC Prof. Dr. Ziaul Qayyum, Khawaja Junaid and others.
“Believe me respected guests, it was a golden era in the history of Pakistan’s sports,” said Dr Mukhtar Ahmed adding the entire nation, youths, elderly people were hooked to their TV screens whenever the two teams (Holland and Pakistan) were face to face.
He paid rich compliments to the Dutch Ambassador, Henny de Vries, who a couple of days earlier hosted a reception for the both teams at her residence. The Dutch Bully club is one of the most popular hockey clubs of the country and according to the Dutch ambassador, it was an historic visit with significant cultural and sporting importance as the team hailing from Oldenzaal in the Netherlands was the first hockey team to visit and compete against a Pakistani team in over 22 years.
HEC Chairman expressed his surprise and a little disappointment whey such a long period elapsed without a visit from a hockey team and promised he would make sure and take up the issue that such visits took place on a regular basis.
He proposed a visit of the Pakistani/HEC hockey teams to the Netherlands and other European nations for one year and reciprocal visits from the European sides. This would contribute to the resurrection and revival of Pakistan’s national sports, he said.
The Dutch hockey club OHC Bully, it may be mentioned, has won the hockey series by defeating HEC team on penalty shoot-outs. The two matches played earlier in Lahore ended in a draw.
The hockey series was facilitated by the Khawaja Junaid academy, run by Olympian Khawaja Junaid.
