‘A lot of hockey activity after Eid’

KARACHI: PHF secretary Olympian Shahbaz Ahmed has said that after Eid-ul-Azha holidays Pakistan’s hockey activities would be in full swing.

The country’s senior, junior, under-18 and women teams would be in action and inter-club championship would be revived across the country, he told ‘The News’.

He said that due to the efforts of the federation for the last one year, hockey had started recovering and the confidence of the players was rising.

He said the juniors played well in their recent European tour during which they defeated Spain 2-1.

The team also defeated Holland’s major local clubs during the tour.

He said that after Eid holidays, Oman’s under-18 team would play four matches against Pakistan under-18s.

Both teams are to participate in the Youth Asia Cup, scheduled to be held in Dhaka.

Pakistan team will depart on September 22 or 23 after this series.

He said the juniors’ training camp would be held this month and its schedule would be announced in a couple of days.

The juniors are training for the Junior World Cup to be held in India in December.

The PHF secretary said the boys and officials would have to work harder as the competitions ahead were more important and vital for the revival of hockey in the country.

“We can say our performance is good. It is a good start and a sign that our teams have started showing good results, but we will have to work more to achieve bigger targets,” said Shahbaz, a World Cup-winning captain.

He said the senior team would be ready to defend its title of Asian Champions Trophy, scheduled to be played in October in Malaysia.

The last phase of the seniors’ training camp would also be started after Eid holidays, he added.

A series between the senior and the junior teams is being planned before the seniors’ departure to Malaysia.

The PHF secretary further said the women team would attend a short training camp before going to Bangkok where it would participate in Asian Hockey Federation Cup from October 1-9.

He said PHF was going to revive the inter-club championship at district, division and provincial levels.