Pakistan’s hockey teams have been quite busy in recent times. Pakistan’s national (senior), Pakistan under-21s and Pakistan under-18s were in action at important international tournaments.

The seniors and the under-21s participated in two events, both in Malaysia, which almost overlapped.

The Asian Champions Trophy ended on October 30 and the Sultan of Johor Cup (for under-21s) commenced the very next day. Only a few weeks back, the under-18s had figured in the Boys Asia Cup in Bangladesh. All the three outfits were studded with players from the Dar Hockey Academy, the country’s biggest production line for hockey players. Pakistan’s national team at the Asian Champions Trophy had Aleem Bilal, Arslan Qadir & Faisal Qadir.

Pakistan under-21s at Sultan of Johor Cup included Rana Sohail, Bilal Qadir & M Rizwan.

Pakistan under-18s at Boys Junior Asia Cup had the services of Waqar Younis, Adeel Latif, Ali Aziz & Awais Arshad.

But it was not surprising. Dar HA has been a continuous success story since its inception in late 2006. Starting with just seven boys, the academy has flourished without any government help.

Though based in Lahore, the talented players are scouted from other places as well. The boys from outside Lahore also get education, as the academy arranges school admissions for them.

The educational, board and lodging expenses are completely borne by the academy. Within three years of its birth, Dar HA boys were gaining selection in the national teams. Pakistan’s victorious side of the boys under-18 Asia Cup in 2009 had four players from the academy. Since then every national age group team has included player(s) from the Dar HA.

In 2012, Khalid Bhatti became the first from the academy to wear the coveted national ‘senior’ blazer. The academy boys have been gaining frequent national senior selections.

The colts are given training at the blue turf of National Hockey Stadium by a coaching team led by the 1994 World Cup winner Danish Kaleem.

For competitive experience, the Dar HA play against local outfits. They also invite teams from outside Lahore and sometimes they go to other towns. The boys also appear for their school teams in inter-school tournaments. The academy boys are picked up by the departmental, city and provincial sides for national senior as well as the age-group tournaments.

All the semi-finalists in the last four national junior and three senior championships benefited from the Dar academy talent.

The academy teams have made no less than five tours abroad. The first was in 2008 to India where they won the All India Maharaja Ranjit Singh under-15 tournament in Amritsar.

The next four visits have all been to Europe, the powerhouse of hockey. The Dar HA have played matches in the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium -- the leading hockey nations.

This time, the academy’s under-18 side is all set for a new destination -- the Far East. Malaysia has been, for last many years, the busiest centre of international hockey. Its domestic league is highly competitive and attracts hockey stars from many countries.

The Malaysian Hockey Junior League has the best structure for the junior players anywhere. It is held annually and Junior Field Hockey Clubs of Malaysia have been participating in this prestigious competition since 2000. The MJHL featured a total of 36 teams in 2016. The top Division 1 consisted of 10 sides. The rest 26 in Division 2 were further divided into three: Div 2 North, Div 2 Central and Div 2 South.

No wonder, Malaysia reached the semi-finals of the Junior World Cup an astonishing four times.

Olympic gold medallist Taqueer Dar, the founder president of the Dar HA says: "We had been receiving invitations from Malaysia for quite some time but couldn’t avail ourselves of those chances because of academy’s European engagements. It should be a wonderful experience for our colts since Malaysia has a very good junior hockey set-up. I must thank Mr Tayyab Ikram, the Pakistani CEO of the Asian Hockey Federation, who took special interest in arranging this tour. We are also grateful to our generous sponsors whose number is increasing all the time. They have made everything possible for the Dar Academy. It is difficult to name each of them -- there are around 25 of them. Major patrons are Dollar East, Al Fatah, Shoe Box (Servis), Chaudhry Fabrics, Shezan, Imran Khan Foundation and Diamond Paints."

During the tour, the Dar HA will be hosted by Raja Ashman Shah AHF-MHC Hockey Academy in Ipoh, the capital of Perak state. This academy is named after late Raja Ashman Shah, son of the then Asian Hockey Federation President, now late, Sultan Azlan Shah, who was also the king of Malaysia for some time.

Apart from playing matches against some local age group teams, the Dar HA colts will participate in the Under-18 Boys Raja Ashman Shah AHF-MHC invitation tournament. The event involves four teams that will first play each other in round robin format and then there will be the final and the third place match.

Head Coach Danish Kaleem is confident. "Most importantly, it is the experience gained during the foreign tour which will prove useful for the boys. There is no substitute for good competition on foreign soil to test the skills of the players and improve their match temperament -- the previous overseas tours of the Dar HA are a testimony to this fact," he claimed.