PHF Executive Board to discuss hockey league

KARACHI: The PHF Executive Board meeting will discuss at length the Pakistan Hockey League (PHL), ‘The News’ has learnt.

The board will then present a proposal to the PHF Congress for approval. The idea of Pakistan Hockey League (PHL) has been discussed several times in the past but no concrete proposal has been formulated.

PHF secretary Shahbaz Ahmed told ‘The News’ that 2017 would be the year of PHL and that its procedures would be decided as soon as possible. The PHF Executive Board will also discuss the details of domestic hockey calendar, formation of new departmental teams, job opportunities for the emerging players, arranging international matches with strong teams for senior and junior teams.

The senior team is to participate in Asia Cup in October in Bangladesh and then the World Cup 2018 in India. The head coach of Pakistan senior team Khwaja Junaid has submitted his report on the performance of the Green-shirts in London qualifying round of World Cup.

He has mentioned in his report that nine players of the team were playing in an international tournament for the first time and that was the main reason for their poor performance. He said that the team still managed to qualify for the World Cup.

But critics have said the team has qualified only due to the qualification system. Pakistan qualified because the champions of continents and the hosts India qualified for the World Cup automatically.

This allowed the sixth and the seventh placed teams in the London qualifying round to reach World Cup. The PHF has called renowned former Olympians on the sidelines of PHF Executive Board meeting to get their input to improve the performance of the Green-Shirts in Asia Cup.