Pakistan to appear in World Hockey League

Qualifying for 2018 World Cup

KARACHI: Pakistan’s senior hockey team head coach Khwaja Junaid has said the Green-shirts would have to play World Hockey League in England from June 15 to 25 next year to qualify for World Cup 2018.

Talking to ‘The News’, he said his team’s next training camp would be held later this month to prepare for the qualifiers. “The continental champions (Asia Cup winners) qualify for the World Cup, and the world hockey league is the other way of qualification. We have focused on both events,” he said.

Pakistan failed to qualify for World Cup 2014, as well as Olympics 2016.

He said that six teams had been confirmed to play world hockey league.

The other teams are Argentina, Holland, Great Britain, South Korea and India. Four more teams are to join them.

Junaid added it was not yet known what format the world hockey league would have. He said he had learnt that it would be changed from the previous one.

He said weaknesses of the senior team had been identified during the Sultan Azlan Shah hockey tournament. “We worked on them before the Asian Champions Trophy and improvement has been seen in various areas. But there is still need to work hard in order to be counted among the strong teams of the world.

“We lost against India in the final of Asian Champions Trophy, but their players were much more experienced, having played international matches regularly, including Olympics and Champions Trophy. In just two years the Indian players have played 150 international matches and our team did not play any international match against any team before appearing in ultan Azlan Shah and Asian Champions Trophy. But we reached the final after defeating Malaysia, Korea, and Japan which are also formidable sides,” he said.

“What can you expect when the players have played only 14 international matches and those too in tournaments! We did not play any test series with any country which is the need of the hour so that players get used to sustain the pressure of international matches, learn how to handle pressure. We will learn many a thing when we play test series with strong sides. The situation is that neither a foreign team is coming here nor are we going anywhere,” Junaid said.

“But despite these shortcomings we are improving and giving tough time to all rivals, including India. Our forwards are playing well, they are playing attacking hockey, scoring field goals and getting penalty corners. The forward line comprising Haseem Khan, Umar Bhutta and Muhammad Rizwan played outstandingly. It is able to smash any defence line of any country.

“The penalty corner drillers also produced good results,” the head coach said.

He said that goalkeeper Amjad Ali also played well. “Along with senior goalkeeper Imran Butt, he played an important role in reaching the final of Asian Champions Trophy.

“There is need to work hard on defence, goalkeeping, ball possession, either taking the ball to the rivals or controlling it by our own players. We will remove these shortcomings in the next training camp,” he added.