PHF to organise U16 Boys’ School Championship

KARACHI: The Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) will organise the National Under-16 Boys’ School Hockey championship 2017 in April, ‘The News’ learnt on Saturday.

The Director Development and Domestic of PHF, Olympian Naveed Alam told this scribe that provincial hockey associations, commissioners and deputy commissioners will collaborate in organising the championship for the first time in Pakistan. He said that the PHF is looking to promote the sport at grass-root level.

Naveed said that PHF president Brig (retd) Khalid Khokar and secretary Shahbaz Ahmed wanted to make the event a success and confirmed that all the participating players would be provided free hockey sticks and shoes.

The official said that selection committees will be appointed in the eight units where open trials are going to be held — with members belonging to the same region — and all the government as well as private schools would be invited to participate in the trials.

The provincial hockey associations and local administrations would also be taken into confidence before the trials, he added.

The trials are expected to begin from the mid of this month in Lahore, Karachi, Faisalabad, Bahawalpur, Okara, Hyderabad, Larkana, Benazirabad, Sukkur, Peshawar, Bannu, Abbotabad, Mardan, Quetta, Islamabad-Rawalpindi division, Gilgit-Baltistan division and FATA.

Islamabad is being seen as a possible venue for the championship but a final decision is yet to be taken in this regard, he said, while adding that two or three teams could be allowed in cities where hockey is passionately followed by a number of school children.