Pakistan striving to revive past hockey glory - Asif Bajwa
The Pakistan Hockey Federation has been succeeded to win over the sport authorities of Egypt for a bilateral series at the home grounds. It is a bid to revive the past glory of the game, which has been shut off since long ago due to war against terrorism.
Pakistan’s hockey team, which clinched a triumph in the recently concluded Asian Gala, will leave for Egypt in the first phase for a bilateral series and vice versa. These are quite aspiring signs for the sport, as this tour will further ease the way for
other teams to visit Pakistan.
Secretary General of PHF, Asif Bajwa, told the media after Executive Board and Congress meeting that he could not disclose details of the programme at this level, as programme has yet to be finalised.
Asif further said, “As per the plan, Pakistan will visit Egypt in February first and then they will send their team here in March. The visit of the Egyptian team will open doors for other nations to send their teams to Pakistan.”
He maintained that the meeting decided a busy calendar for the Greenshirts. Pakistan’s hockey squad will take part in numerous tournaments including four-nation tourney in Ireland, trip to Scotland, another four-team event comprised of test matches against
Netherlands, Germany and Spain, the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup and the Champions Trophy in India, he added.
Executive Board and Congress in a meeting awarded additional powers to the federation to reshuffle the administrations of the junior and senior squads and the other committees for the betterment of the sport.
To a query, the Secretary General of the PHF informed the reporters that the meeting also approved the annual budget of the federation with a total amount of Rs 500 million for the year of 2010-11.
The former Olympian in a desiring state said, “We set the realistic target of a gold medal in the last Asian Games and achieved it. We don’t want to raise hollow slogans and thus aiming to get a place on the podium in the Olympics and gold medal in the World
Cup.”
Commenting on the preparations of the Greenshirts for upcoming mega events, Bajwa said that the Dutch Coach, Michel van den Heuvel would be with the national team until the 2012 London Olympics while the names of the other officials would be disclosed in
January.
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