Asian Champions Trophy: Pakistan’s Rehan Butt relives 2007 Chennai memories 

Rehan Butt, former captain of the Pakistan hockey team, reminisces his 2007 tour to Chennai. He is now coach of a largely inexperienced side. He hopes for positive support from the authorities to help the team grow and prepare for a better future. He believes that even if they don't qualify, they will still be preparing for a better future.

The last time Rehan Butt came to Chennai with the Pakistan team was also the last international hockey competition in the city. Back then, he was captain of the side and still among the deadliest forwards in the game with the biggest Indian obstacle in his way being a defender called Dilip Tirkey.

Now coach with a largely inexperienced side here, Butt’s memories of that 2007 tour are underlined by ‘Chak De! India’. “The movie had just been released back then and we saw it during the Asia Cup. That is still the central point of my memories even now whenever my kids ask me about it. Watching it in a cinema hall was an incredible experience,” Butt told The Hindu here.

The images are still vivid for Butt. “When I went to the ground this morning, the first thing I noticed was the lights set-up which is very different and that kind of threw me back into flashback. The city has changed a lot — earlier, it was an old city, like areas of Lahore or Delhi. Now it’s a lot more modern, cleaner and brighter. But the people are the same, our welcome was the same,” he reminisced.

The fact that Tirkey is now Hockey India president and the first person to receive the Pakistan team when it entered India on Monday was former international Jugraj Singh were pointers, he laughed, of a bygone period.

His current role has him chaperoning a side that, barring one, has players with a combined international experience of 224 games — that’s less than the number of matches Akashdeep Singh alone has played for India. “I saw the teams when we landed here and realised ‘kuch zyada hi chhote bachhe le aye hain’,” he laughed.

“But to be honest, our main focus is on the Junior World Cup and we want to prepare this team to have enough experience in the next few years. I have seen a spark in these boys during the Junior Asia Cup and I know we will get beaten in the next few years but these things take time, once they get that experience, they will be special,” he insisted.

Given the impatience with results and constant chopping and changing in most Asian countries, he acknowledged that there will be a period of growing-up but hoped there will be sufficient support from the authorities this time. “Enough has been damaged. Now it’s time to get out of the short-term planning and immediate results mentality.