PHF appoints Musaddiq as tournament director

National championship

KARACHI: Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) has appointed Olympian Musaddiq Hussain Tournament Director (TD) of the 63rd National Hockey Championship, scheduled to be held in Lahore from December 23 to January 3, 2017.

The matches would be played at National Hockey Stadium and Johar Town stadium, PHF announced on Friday.

This time only departmental teams will participate in the championship — a step PHF says will boost the standard of domestic hockey.

For the regional teams, another national-level championship will be organised, likely in March next year.

PHF’s director development domestic Olympian Naveed Alam said a meeting about the national championship would be held on December 22 and would be addressed by Musaddiq.

He said that assistant directors are Ansar Mehmood (Gujrat), Khalid Munir (Karachi) and Shahid Hameed (Gujranwala).

He added that Masood-ur-Rehman would be the organising secretary.

He also said that Zulfiqar Shah (Lahore) would be the umpires’ manager, while Munawar Hussain (Lahore), M Asghar (TUF) and Ms Razia Rizvi (Rawalpindi) would be the assistant managers.

Sources in the PHF said that efforts were being made for sponsorship and it was expected that a handsome amount would be announced for the winning team and top performers.

As many as 32 technical officials and 23 umpires from across the country have been selected to conduct the championship.

A source said that the decision to separate regional and departmental teams was taken because all talented and skillful players used to play for departments, which left the regional teams very weak and they faced big defeats.

Teams of the four provinces, FATA, Azad Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan and Islamabad would participate in another championship, the source said.

The sources said that Fauji Foundation and Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) were being added to the national championship.

The director development and domestic PHF further said that most of Pakistan’s top players would be seen in action because PHF was organising the event at a time when there would be no professional league anywhere in the world.

The departments likely to participate in the championship are Army, Navy, Air Force, WAPDA, SSGC, Pakistan Ordnance Factory (POF), Customs, NBP, PTV, SNGPL Police and Fauji Foundation.