Hockey-5 dates not final yet owing to airtime issue

KARACHI: Due to the uncertainty about the live coverage of Pakistan’s first Hockey-5 championship the schedule of the event has not been decided yet, ‘The News’ has learnt.

Informed sources said that PHF wanted live coverage of Hockey-5 championship to popularise the national game, but clash of dates with T20 cricket tournaments has delayed the Hockey-5 championship. The event was scheduled to be held in the first two weeks of Ramadan in Lahore under floodlights.

But during the same period a couple of T20 cricket events are being organised in Karachi which will get TV airtime.

This is the reason why PHF has failed to get title sponsorship for the event.

Hockey officials said it was surprising that TV channels preferred local T20 cricket matches over an hockey event in which national-level players are going to participate.

“These T20 tournaments are not part of domestic cricket. They are just money-making ventures,” said a local hockey coach. “Hockey is our national game. Pakistan won three Olympic gold medals and four World Cups in this game, but still cricket is being preferred and that too, club level cricket,” he added.

Sources in the PHF said that all preparation for Hockey-5 had been completed and only the issue of live coverage was to be resolved.

It has been finally decided that six teams will participate in the event named after major cities of the country.

Majority of the participants will be those boys who are part of the national senior and junior teams.

The players will be picked by coaches Khawaja Junaid and Tahir Zaman, but they will not be coaching any team during the tournament.

The six teams will be coached by those who participated in various workshops organised by the PHF recently in Karachi, Lahore and Peshawar.

Hockey-5 is a faster version of field hockey. There are only five players who compete for 40 minutes. They can score from any part of the field which is smaller than the regular hockey field.

PHF sources said handsome amount of prize money was being offered in the event and it was for the first time that all participating six teams would get prize money. There will be awards for the player of the tournament, the best goalkeeper and the highest scorer.

By giving lucrative prizes PHF wants to attract the players who have either quit playing in recent years or prefer playing abroad where they get paid handsome amounts.