Pakistan to revive international hockey at its home soil
In a step towards the revival of international hockey in the country, Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) officials recently met with the Presidents of various federations abroad for the betterment of relationship with Pakistan.
Since the terrorist attacks on the Sri Lankan cricket team’s visit to Pakistan in 2009, no international sports body took the risk to send their teams to Pakistan for any event. As a result, the scheduled events were cancelled or rescheduled elsewhere, leaving Pakistan with an end towards hosting international sports tournaments.
However, it is expected that the Malaysian hockey team will visit to Pakistan this year to play a series with the host team.
On May 19, PHF Secretary Asif Bajwa told media persons about two international events that will be hosted in Pakistan in 2012. This announcement was made after returning from Malaysia, where he attended the Asian Hockey Federation meeting that was held to finalise the 2012 Hockey Calendar.
Bajwa also commented about the Malaysian team that prior to the team’s tour, a three-member surveillance team from Malaysia will visit Pakistan to observe the security conditions in the country.
Bajwa reported that in accordance to the next year’s finalised hockey calendar, Pakistan is scheduled to host the 2012 Asian Club Hockey Championship in Lahore and 2012’s Indoor Asia Hockey Cup in Islamabad, respectively.
Moreover, he stated the fact that both the Indian and Pakistani hockey body are in contact with each other on a regular basis, with hope to conduct a commendable series this year. The Pakistan High Commission will finalise the series at a meeting with the federation officials of the neighbouring country soon. Hopefully, the series will be held either in September or November, this year.
According to the Secretary, the International Hockey Federation (FIH) had provided permission to the Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) to conduct a hockey league and the PHF has no objection if any player from Pakistan was interested in participating in it. Moreover, such appearance will enable the two countries to strengthen their sport relations.
With regard to the recent performance of the hockey team at last week’s Azlan Cup, Bajwa said that the team needs to improve a bit more, however, the team gave a good performance at the Malaysian tournament. “If players continue playing like this then we will achieve our set targets in near future,” Bajwa added.
Meanwhile, Pakistan’s team captain Muhammad Imran expressed his happiness yesterday over the performance of the team in Malaysia. He commented that the team seems to be headed in the right direction for winning the 2012 London Olympics.
The team’s manager, Khawaja Junaid feels that the team currently has the perfect blend of both youth and experience, raising expectations for the future international appearances ahead and commented it as one of the reasons of a fine performance of the team in the Azlan Cup.
Another issue presently prevailing is about the captaincy of Muhammad Imran that turned out into such a fine achievement for the team. It has undoubtedly posed a threat upon the former captain, Zeeshan Ashraf’s future need in the team.
It seems as if the old skipper will no longer be missed in the Pakistani squad. Despite the fact that Ashraf himself offered Imran’s name for the captaincy, the PHF seems no more interested in calling back Ashraf into the team for the mega event ahead of 2012 London Olympics.
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