PHF refuses Champions Trophy wild card entry

KARACHI: Pakistan would not participate in the Champions Trophy 2016 through wild card, PHF has decided.

It has decided that the Green-shirts would prepare for the World Cup qualifying rounds in 2017, ‘The News’ has learnt.

Sources said that FIH was ready to give wild card entry to the Green-shirts but PHF refused to participate in the event in the current circumstances.

PHF recently invited around 50 players for the training camp of national senior hockey team.

The training camp is under way in Lahore.

PHF president Brig Khalid Khokhar, when contacted, confirmed that PHF did not want to send the national team to participate in the Champions Trophy this year, as it was a developing squad.

He said that PHF’s focus was on qualification for the World Cup 2018 whose qualifying round would be played in 2017.

“We plan to develop the team to qualify for the World Cup 2018 and at this moment we cannot afford any experiment.

“All our efforts are aimed at making the team strong for the qualifying rounds of World Cup. It would be affected if we participated in the Champions Trophy.

“We are taking part in Sultan Azlan Shah tournament to give some experience to the new players. We do not expect any extraordinary results in the event,” he said.

The Green-shirts are out of the two biggest hockey events, the World Cup and the Olympics.

Olympian Samiullah, when contacted, said that it was a wise decision not to send the developing team to participate in the Champions Trophy this year and instead focus on qualifying rounds of World Cup.

He said the team was passing through a rebuilding process and some senior players were not selected for Sultan Azlan Shah tournament. “Thus, it is in the interest of the national team to prepare to qualify for World Cup 2018 and then Olympics,” he added.

“If they played the in Champions Trophy and lost, it could be damaging for the players as there was a huge gap between Pakistan and the other teams,” he said.

He said that PHF should take Sultan Azlan Shah tournament as a test case for the boys and see how their preparation is going on.