Pakistan Hockey Federation announces postponement of Egypt Tour – Hockey News
The Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) has officially announced to delay the tour of Pakistan Hockey team to Egypt.
This deferment is in result of the political unrest currently prevailing in the country. The whole of the African state is undergoing a poor law and order situation, unfavourable to host an event.
The team was proposed to tour Egypt from February 22, 2011 for a 5-match series. It was supposed to be a bilateral event and Pakistan was to host the Egyptian Hockey team in April, later this year.
The PHF Secretary Asif Bajwa commented that on the advice of the Federal government, the PHF decided to delay the Egypt tour. Any further decisions on this issue shall be done with the joint approval of the Egyptian Hockey Authority. He suggested that this
series also have chances of getting cancelled if the conditions do not improve soon.
This tour was of great importance for both the Greenshirts and PHF because it was intended to help in the team’s development and improvement of skills. It was an obvious face-off between two best international hockey teams of the World. Egypt is no doubt
on the top among the African hockey teams. This can also be said that the actual purpose of the series was to blow off the contender’s preparations for the upcoming 2012 London Olympics.
Another important aspect of such an event was to improve Pakistan’s perception in the international arena. The country’s name is quite much attached to the dark practices of terrorism spread out globally. Especially, since the March 2009 terrorist attack
on the Sri Lankan Cricket team, Pakistan has not got hold of a chance to host any international sport event.
However, the Egyptian team’s tour to Pakistan was a way out of such critics. This tour could have built an optimistic image for the country, causing initiative from the other countries to visit Pakistan as well.
The series had another importance of being the first step towards preparing the Pakistan hockey team for the Olympics 2012. If such a face-off gets missed it would be a huge loss.
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