PHF plans nine-a-side tourney

KARACHI: The Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) intends to introduce a nine-a-side competition in the domestic circuit, possibly before the next national championship, ‘The News’ learnt on Thursday.
Sources in the PHF said that these days the federation is giving priority to the preparation of the junior team as the juniors are the only hope at international level for big events after the failure of the senior team to qualify for the Rio Olympics 2016.
But at the same time, to strengthen the domestic hockey, PHF is working to introduce various big hockey events and the nine-a-side tournament is one of them, the sources said.
According to the sources, nine-a-side hockey is a fast format and its rules are much different from those of the regular hockey competitions. The tournament is regularly held in Australia.
It will make the boys faster, more competitive and accurate. They will be able to play aggressive hockey, the sources said. According to rules, each match consists of two 20-minute halves with five minutes for halftime. At the commencement of the match and the re-start of the second half, the game is started with an on-side bully at the centre of the pitch.
After a goal has been scored, a bully is used to re-start the game from the centre of the pitch.
A maximum of nine players from each team take part in play at any particular time during the match. A maximum of 16 players are able to participate in a match. One player must stay in the attacking half at all times. The one attacking player is to move into the attacking half immediately at the commencement of each half or after a goal is scored.
A substitution is permitted at any time except within the period from the award of a corner and penalty corner until after it is completed.
The goal is one meter in width with regulation goal height remaining the same.
There are many other rules which make it different from regular hockey.
The sources said that initially an eight-team tournament would be held before the national hockey championship, which is scheduled to be held in December either in Karachi or Lahore.
The sources said that before starting the tournament a comprehensive briefing would be given to the participating teams for preparation. Only departmental teams will participate in the tournament.