Haier Rescues Pakistan’s Hockey World Cup Campaign

However, Chinese consumer electronics Haier has taken the mantle of title sponsor with the PHF for the next three years, thanks to Javed Afridi, CEO of Haier Electronics in Pakistan. Afridi is also the chairman of Pakistan Super League (PSL) franchise, Peshawar Zalmi.

Speaking to local media, a buoyant Afridi added, “Hockey is our national sport and we are recognized throughout the world because of it. Pakistan has enormous talent and we will soon climb the ranks in our national sport again.”

According to the ASN Index, Haier ranks fourth (7.8% share, US$23.3m) for the consumer electronics category in the Asian sponsorship market since Q116, unsurprisingly the brand’s spend on its home turf takes up 81.6% while India (9%), Pakistan (8.4%) and Sri Lanka (0.9%) contributes to the rest. Haier has invested around US$1.96m in Pakistan during this timeframe, however, it has been quiet since the highs of Q416 (US$1.2m), and Q418 is a rare upwards spike (US$337k) from its quarterly average of US$181k.

The PHF had earlier approached the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) for loan, but that did not work out. PHF president Khalid Sajjad Khokhar and secretary Shahbaz Ahmed termed the deal as a step in the right direction, saying that Pakistan hockey was in “need of such support”.

Pakistan is in a tough pool in the 2018 Hockey World Cup alongside Germany, Malaysia and Netherlands and will kick off its campaign against Germany on December 1 at the Kalinga Stadium, Bhubaneswar.