PHF did all it could to prepare juniors: Khokhar

KARACHI: PHF president Brig (rtd) Khalid Khokhar has said that the preparation of junior hockey team is near completion as their last practice match will be played on November 7 against Pakistan White.
They will also play two matches in Malaysia next week, against Japan and China ahead of Asia Cup 2015.
PHF president told ‘The News’ that they had pinned their hopes on junior team’s performance in Asia Cup.
“When the juniors played against players who had experience of more than 100 international matches such as Muhammad Imran, Imran Butt and Shakeel Abbasi, they learnt a lot.
“We want them to win the Asia Cup so that our qualification for the Junior World Cup is confirmed,” he said.
Asked about changing the captain of juniors, the PHF president said Ammad Shakeel Butt and Dilbar both were senior players. “Dilbar is our main striker and spearhead and he is a regular member of the senior team, but when he did not play well in the junior team in Malaysia, we had to address the problem,” he said.
Pakistan’s forwards completely failed in the Malaysian tournament. In five matches, they only scored five goals, three on penalty corners.
Khokhar said that PHF did whatever it could for strengthening the junior team. “We provided it the best training facilities, the best physical instructors, the best diet and the best available coaches. There had been lack of match practice but now they have been playing regularly. They played in Malaysia and in Pakistan against our senior team,” he said.
The PHF president hoped that the efforts would not go waste and the team would be successful in the Asia Cup.
He said that PHF would soon unveil the schedule of domestic hockey as a number of events have been made part of the hockey calendar.
He said when he took charge as president, the national game was in tatters. He claimed that his team slowly improved the situation from the grassroots level.
He said that no one was ready to come to Pakistan. “Our poor financial condition did not allow us to send the junior team to play outside the country. Besides, there was no time to arrange series for junior team’s practice,” he said.
“Therefore, the best way was to play a series with the senior team. Both teams got engaged as the seniors had been away from the game since the debacle of the Rio Olympics 2016 qualifiers,” he said.