Fawad Hussain: Pakistan has won a record four hockey World Cups but its absence from Tokyo 2020 is the second time the team has missed the Olympics. Shakeel Abbasi remembers the times he donned the Pakistan national hockey team jersey.

Once a prolific striker of the men’s side, Abbasi now feels he made a “big mistake” in taking hockey on as a career when, he says, many options were open to him as a promising athlete.

“I made a big mistake by picking hockey over cricket. I was very good in both but I preferred our national sport [hockey]. Sometimes, I feel it was a big mistake,” Abbasi, a three-time Olympian, told Al Jazeera.

The 37-year-old seasoned centre-forward, once regarded as one of the best young strikers in world hockey, is able to just about make ends meet now by playing professional hockey leagues in England, the Netherlands and Malaysia.

“Even those leagues are not taking place due to the coronavirus pandemic. These definitely are testing times for me because one needs money to survive,” he said.

“This is happening to a player who has served his country for years, played in three Olympics, two World Cups and eight Champions Trophy tournaments. I pity the kids when I see them playing hockey.”

Abbasi, born the year Pakistan clinched the last of its three Olympic gold medals (Los Angeles 1984), won several medals while representing the national team more than 300 times from 2003 to 2014.

Absent from Tokyo 2020: But such is the state of hockey in Pakistan that the former captain is not alone in his struggles.

Pakistan has suffered a shocking and continuous decline from being consistently among the top four to languishing at 18th in the latest rankings.

The Tokyo Olympics are the second consecutive time that Pakistan have missed the multi-sport event. It also failed to qualify for the 2014 World Cup for the first time in history and finished a dismal 12th in the 2018 edition.

For a country that has won three Olympic golds and a record four World Cup titles, missing out on back-to-back Olympic Games is nothing less than a catastrophe for the followers.

“It’s heartbreaking to see Pakistan hockey in its current state,” hockey fan Moezuddin Qureshi, 51, told Al Jazeera.

“Pakistan’s national anthem played to honour the gold-winning team at the Olympics remains my best memory. It used to be a matter of huge pride for us. We grew up playing hockey on the streets but now our kids know nothing about the sport because we are nowhere to be seen in a sport that we ruled for decades.”

Some fans and experts have concluded that Pakistan hockey is “dead” while others, showing minor optimism at best, consider it to be “on a ventilator”.

Pakistan began its Olympic journey with a silver in Melbourne 1956, before going one better four years later in Rome, breaking India’s streak of six straight gold medals.

Two silver medals and one gold followed in the next three Olympics before a bronze in 1976 as the team consolidated its position among the superpowers.

Its first missed podium came at Seoul 1988 before it managed a bronze medal in Barcelona four years later – their last Olympic medal to date.

‘Failure to adapt with modern hockey’

Pakistan hockey’s decline started in the 1980s.

Some experts believe the introduction of artificial turf in the 1970s started to affect the performance of Pakistani and Indian players. Both were labelled the “kings of grass”.

The game evolved over the years, demanding better fitness but analysts say Pakistan were left behind in the race.

Cricket, the most popular sport in the country, is also blamed for hockey’s fall after many schools and educational institutes replaced hockey outfits with cricket.

Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) officials have faced allegations of embezzlement and misuse of government funds besides being widely criticised for poor planning.

The “legends” that took Pakistan to glory in the past have also been accused of selfish behaviour by analysts.