Why Pakistan owes China for sending their hockey team

In a time when the world wants nothing to do with Pakistan, her neighbour China made a bold statement by sending a few men with hockey sticks to the troubled nation.

The nation’s cricket team hosts all of its matches in the Middle East. First it was Sharjah and more recently in Abu Dhabi, yet the team has not played an international fixture on Pakistani soil for far too long.

So when China agreed to send its hockey team to Pakistan to play a series in the land where the Sri Lankan cricket team was shot at, the general public and the government should understand the significance of what that represented.

By doing what they did, China pretty much shattered the growing perception that Pakistan was a ‘no go’ zone in terms of sports. The entire series went without a hitch and despite the home side thrashing their guests on the field, the visitors had nothing
but kind words to share with the media.

There is now talk of China planning to invite the Pakistani national hockey team to visit the nation and play a series on their soil. If nothing else this shows two things; firstly, that relationships can be strengthened with sports and secondly, that Pakistan
is not the wild-west terrorist harbouring nation that the media loves to portray.

In essence it was just the kind of exposure and publicity the country needs in order to repair its damaged reputation, however, this alone will not be enough. Pakistan needs to be able to invite other nations as well in a slow rebuilding process.

Nations like Bangladesh and Afghanistan can be asked to come and take part in a number of sporting activities as very few factions in Pakistan will be hostile towards them, and then take it from there.

To be honest a visit from India, the United States and England seem far away and for good reason, yet the first few steps are always the hardest and this generation can still harbour some hope that their children may just watch a cricket match on home soil
one day.

Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=7664

Posted by Musa Afridi on Dec 29 2011. Filed under Opinion, Pakistan, Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry