The Asian Hockey is passing through a difficult time. Never, it fared so badly that its representation in the Olympic Games has touched a new low as India will be the only Asian team to compete in men’s hockey.

Seven men and six women’s teams from Europe will play in the Paris Olympic Games Nine countries – the Netherlands, Germany, Great Britain, Belgium, Spain and France from Europe, Argentina from Americas, South Africa from Africa, and Australia from Australasia- will be represented by both men and women teams.

India earned the Olympic berth as continental champion. None of other Asian teams who competed in the Olympic Qualifiers could make it to 2024 Olympic Games. Pakistan fell at the last hurdle losing to New Zealand 2-3 after suffering 0-4 defeat at the hands of Germany in the semi-finals.

Malaysia had some consolation of defeating Canada 3-1 in penalty shootout after a goalless draw in the game to decide fifth and sixth position at the Muscat Qualifier. But that is not enough to meet the expectations of ardent hockey fans back home.

Asian expatriates have been representing both USA and Canada in various international tournaments, including the Olympic Games. This time, however, both Canada and the USA have not qualified in the men’s section though the US women made the grade from the Ranchi tournament.

The situation in the women’s section is slightly better. Other than Asian Games champion China, Japan has also qualified for the Paris Games.

A debate has already started in Malaysia over the future funding of hockey as the Malaysian men’s hockey team last played in the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games. It is yet to win a single FIH tournament. All experiments of bringing in foreign coaches besides holding major FIH tournaments for giving exposure to the youngsters at a huge cost to the exchequer has failed to produce the desired results.

Malaysia finished fifth in the Muscat Qualifier. Its only consolation was it held Pakistan to a 3-3 draw in a pool game and then won the penalty shootout against Canada in the classification game.

In the qualifiers, except for Japan in the women’s section, all other teams, both men and women, including those of Malaysia, India, Pakistan, and Korea failed to make the grade. If Pakistan was a disappointment in men’s section, India was equally a big disappointment in women’s section. After spending huge amount of money and playing host to a qualifier, it failed to finish among top three and thus missed an opportunity to play its third consecutive Olympic Games.

(Prabhjot Singh is a veteran journalist with over three decades of experience of 14 years with Reuters News and 30 years with The Tribune Group, covering a wide spectrum of subjects and stories. He has covered Punjab and Sikh affairs for more than three decades besides covering seven Olympics and several major sporting events and hosting TV shows.)