Aerial view of the National Hockey Stadiumin Lahore, Pakistan.

Last weekend, the former Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan held a political event at the National Hockey Stadium in Lahore. To accommodate the expected crowds, the former Pakistan cricket captain had the stadium’s blue turf pitch removed. This led some commentators to question how a sportsperson could approve such a move which they saw as detrimental to the accessibility of hockey in Pakistan.

Despite the outrage, quite how often the stadium – which houses the offices of the Sports Board Punjab and the Pakistan Hockey Federation – was actually being used is open to debate. It has not hosted a Pakistan international hockey match since 2018 and appears to be falling into disrepair.

Thankfully, Punjab sports minister Taimur Masood confirmed that the iconic stadium’s turf is set to be replaced by a new pitch by the end of 2022. Meanwhile, the ripped up turf is intended to be installed at the Sargodha Stadium elsewhere in Punjab. Yet these plans continue to be disputed by some sources and, according to the newspaper Dawn, “Officials of the Pakistan Hockey Federation … are tight-lipped as the stadium is in full control of the Punjab Sports Board”.

Pakistan is the most successful nation in men’s Hockey World Cup history with four gold medals: 1971 (in Barcelona, Spain), 1978 (in Buenos Aires, Argentina), 1982 (in Bombay/Mumbai, India) and 1994 (in Sydney, Australia).