Dear Zeeshan,
Let me start off by saying that I am a Huge HUGE fan. Your playing skills of course are at excellent levels, but your understanding of the game is just marvelous. The way you mark a striker on the run is exemplary. I am a HUGE fan!!!
Olympic Games are coming up ahead. A couple of months back I heard a documentary regarding the ambitions and the dreams of the players. 90 % of them (and if I am not wrong, you as well) said that getting an Olympic gold medal is the most important achievement for a player. You might not know what that statement means to me and to all of the people like me. For us, The Olympics isn’t just some tournament that comes and goes. NO! It is much much more. The feeling when our Nation’s flag is held up high for everyone to see and know that we are a competitor to be taken seriously. The feeling when after winning a competition, all alone stands the winning team, with Flag in their hands, tears of joy in their eyes, sheer exuberance on their faces. And to the entire world showing what a nation we are. Olympics aren’t just a game.
We have all heard about the good old days, when the only powerhouse in hockey was the Pakistani team and their mere presence meant a victory. My dad reminisces about the past some times and he tells about the time when the whole nation stopped their work just to watch the match and support the Pakistani team. Even today when he recollects those moments, it’s hard for him to keep from smiling.
To be among the best is every ones dream. The chance to be able to fulfill that dream comes only to a handful of people. The rest want to live their joy in the likes of you. I remember talking to an English friend of mine and we talked about how Pakistan had beaten England in the hockey series. I told him,”WE won against your team!” You say you want the Olympic gold medal more than anything else? We want it! Pakistan wants it! Give me some of those moments that I can just think about and smile! And the only way we are going to get that is through you. Whenever there is a match it’s not only you who play, the entire nation is behind you, and Olympics make it so much more special because the opponent isn’t just a single team, it’s the entire world! Win it for yourself, win it for the team, and win it for the Pakistani Nation.
Your fan,
Umair Ahsan
The Pakistani Nation
