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But those periods did not last long enough. For Touseeq Arshad, who was only 17 when he represented Pakistan at the 2012 London Olympics, the result needs to be looked at against where the team stands today rather than where it once stood. "If we see realistically, Pakistan didn't go to win the World Cup or the Pro League.

After that, it will take two or three years before Pakistan can start finishing on the victory stand, if this setup continues. "It is a striking assessment for a country that still sits at the top of the World Cup's historical roll of honour, winning the tournament in 1971, 1978, 1982 and 1994.

Coaches need time with players, younger players need a pathway into the senior side and the system needs to survive beyond one poor tournament or a change in administration. “Unfortunately, Pakistan has not done anything in the last two decades,” Touseeq says. Artificial turf may once have changed the kind of hockey Pakistan had to play.

You don't know about the future of the coaches here,” he says. It leaves Pakistan trying to solve problems at national camps that stronger hockey systems begin addressing years earlier. Imran's prescription is not particularly complicated: more domestic tournaments, functioning academies and properly prepared coaches working within the same development structure.

Touseeq comes back to the same thing from another direction — give a setup time, build a pool of players and stop starting again whenever results go wrong.

Because by the time a player pulls on a Pakistan shirt at a World Cup, the question is no longer how talented he is. It is whether everything that happened before he got there prepared him for the level at which he is now being asked to play.

The weight of past wins. Four World Cup titles still place Pakistan above every other country in the tournament’s history.

He believes Pakistan must first return to the top eight and then, if the same setup is allowed to continue, work towards competing for podium finishes over the next few years. That may sound like a modest target for a four-time world champion, but Pakistan’s three matches at this World Cup showed why the distance has to be measured differently now. The four titles are not going anywhere.

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