In a match where national pride was at stake, Pakistan crumbled under pressure as India, cheered by a boisterous houseful at the Major Dhyan Chand Hockey Stadium, raced to a 7-4 triumph in their Commonwealth Games clash.
It was one of India's biggest triumphs over Pakistan and helped them bury the ghosts of the 1982 Asian Games loss against their neighbors at the same venue. Then, India lost by a similar margin as the late Indira Gandhi, the then prime minister, watched in dismay.
On Sunday night, present among the thousands of fans were Indira's grand son Rahul Gandhi - India's political heir apparent - and his mother Sonia Gandhi.
Even though five of India's sportspersons had won gold medals in the Commonwealth Games during the day, it was the host team's hockey match against Pakistan that was the clear highlight.
The triumph was hailed on the front pages of India's leading newspapers. "A great day for India, a great day for hockey," a headline in the Hindu newspaper said on Monday.
In the past, such a defeat against India would have triggered a huge backlash here at home.
But the hockey team's performance has been so dismal in recent times that the embarrassing defeat didn't come as a big surprise.
Earlier this year, four-time champions Pakistan crashed to a last-place finish in the World Cup at the same venue.
"The people at the helm of our hockey affairs have drowned 50 years of glory earned by us within a period of a few months," said Shahnaz Sheikh, a former Olympian referring to the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF), which has failed to bring any improvement in the national team's performance.
"We were bad at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing and got worse at the World Cup. Now we are even out of the medals race at the Commonwealth Games. It's unbelievable," Shahnaz told Arab News.
Shahnaz said that Pakistan were ill prepared for a tournament that didn't feature five of the world's top teams.
"Even though top teams like Germany, Holland, Spain, Korea and Argentine weren't part of the field, our boys were unable to even reach the semifinals. It shows that in spite of spending millions on their training, our hockey chiefs failed to prepare a good team." Islahuddin Siddiqui, the former Pakistan captain, said that PHF, its coaches and players were all exposed in the defeat against India.
"In the last Commonwealth Games in 2006, we finished as silver medalists," said Islah. "Four years later, after having spent millions on the team, we won't even finish among the top four.
Pakistan hockey has certainly touched its nadir," stressed Islah in an interview with Arab News.
Islah said that Pakistan failed to come out with a proper game plan.
"There was a clear lack of planning on the part of our coaches," he said. "Against Australia we were saved from similar embarrassment because our goalkeeper played well and because the Aussies wasted almost a dozen easy chances," he added referring to Pakistan's 0-1 defeat against Australia last Saturday.
"Against India, our goalie was clueless and we couldn't do any thing because there wasn't any reserve goalkeeper in our squad who could have replaced Imran Shah." Islah lamented the fact that in spite of a series of humiliating results, the higher authorities have turned a blind eye toward Pakistan hockey.
"We have hired a foreign coach, spent thousands of dollars on staging training camps but still the team continues to do badly. I'm actually disheartened because of the fact that our prime minister, who is PHF's chief patron, is not even interested in doing anything about." Since Pakistan's World Cup debacle last March, Islah and several other former greats have been trying to meet Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani to brief him about the plight of Pakistan hockey but have been snubbed by the premier.
