Asia Champions Trophy: Will Pakistan hockey team travel to India?

Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) secretary Haider Hussain has stated that the national hockey team will require approval from the federal government before travelling to India for the Asian Champions Trophy.

“Due to our strained relations with India, we will need approval from the government before travelling to India. We will speak to the government after Eid ul Fitr on this matter,” Hussain said while speaking to Daily Jang.

He said: “We will also speak with the Indian hockey federation in order to share our reservations on the security of our national side."

The event, which includes six teams, will take place from August 3-12 in Chennai.

Earlier, the first phase of the Pakistan junior hockey team’s training camp in Lahore at DHA Hockey Academy ended on Monday.

The training camp was set up for the preparation for the Junior Asia Hockey Cup 2023. The camp will resume after the Eid holidays.

The Junior Asia Hockey Cup will be played from May 23 to June 1 in Salalah, Oman.

Sources said that the second phase would have 28-30 boys and it would be continued till the departure of the team for the Asia Cup.

PHF's efforts for arranging international matches series with Malaysia, South Korea and Japan failed because these countries are busy training and have no time to participate in test series with Pakistan.

Sources in the PHF said that they have an alternative plan for providing match practice to the juniors. They said that during the training camp in Lahore, at least nine practice matches would be arranged against Pakistan senior team players and strong departmental teams. Sources said that the details of these matches would be announced soon.

Sources confirmed that after reaching Oman, Pakistan junior team would play a few practice matches against other participating teams before the event begins.

The teams have been divided into two pools. Pool A comprises Pakistan, India, Japan, Thailand, and Chinese Taipei, while Pool B consists of Korea, Malaysia, Oman, Bangladesh and Uzbekistan. Pakistan will play their first match against Chinese Taipei on May 23, Thailand on May 24, India on May 27 and Japan on May 29.