FIH President Tayyab Ikram recently completed a hockey development trip in Oceania, visiting New Zealand, Fiji and Soloman Islands, and meeting all National Associations from the continent.
In Auckland, he had a very comprehensive meeting with New Zealand Olympic Committee CEO Nicki Nicol and Executive Board Member Graham Child (himself a former Chair of Hockey NZL), as well as Peter Miskimmin (former great hockey player and coach, Olympian, former CEO of Sport NZL and now Sports Diplomacy Manager at Sport NZL) and Hockey NZL CEO Anthony Crummy. Discussions focused around opportunities to develop hockey and how all parties can work together in this regard, both at regional and international level. Tayyab Ikram also talked about how FIH can best position hockey in the country and within the New Zealand NOC. On this occasion, the FIH President received an invitation to visit the New Zealand House in Paris, which he gladly accepted, on behalf of the global hockey community.
He was invited to attend a match with young players at the magnificent North Harbour Hockey Centre. “It was wonderful to see the great skills from these schools’ young players! I very much enjoyed my interaction with them”, he said, before taking this opportunity to present a memento to North Harbour Hockey CEO Michelle Bentham.
Next major item on the President’s agenda was the General Assembly of the Oceania Hockey Federation (OHF) hosted in Fiji under the Chairmanship of OHF President Cameron Vale and in attendance of Dr. Robin Mitchell, IOC Executive Board Member, ANOC (Association of National Olympic Committees) and ONOC (Oceania National Olympic Committee) President, and himself a former hockey coach.
In his address to the delegates, President Ikram touched upon the FIH strategic direction and how best hockey’s world governing body can help Oceania and its members within its global development campaign.
FIH President Tayyab Ikram said: “I was really delighted to have individual meetings with all the National Associations from the Pacific islands to understand their development needs and plans. It was great to see the growth potential for all of them. I introduced to them, in more details, the FIH Empowerment and Engagement Strategy, especially the most relevant parts for them. It was not only about sharing best practices, but I also gained a lot from these discussions. A really fruitful couple of days!”
President Ikram concluded his visit in the Pacific with the Solomon Islands where he had a great meeting with Prime Minister Jeremiah Manele - himself a former hockey player – who offered his full support to hockey and invited the Solomon Islands Hockey Association and its President Winki Yee to stay in touch with him in this regard.
He then had another really interesting meeting with Hon. Christopher Laore, Minister of Home Affairs, in charge of sports to talk about development as well as the recently concluded Pacific Games in Solomon Islands and the legacy of this event - in terms of infrastructure in particular – where hockey had had a very important position.
