Pakistan to feature in four-nation tournament in Australia next month

KARACHI: Pakistan will participate in a four-nation hockey tournament in Australia next month, ‘The News’ has learnt.

The other two teams in the event will be Japan and New Zealand. The tournament will be played in the second week of November. A short training camp is expected to be held in Karachi. PHF will announce the dates of the training camp soon, sources told ‘The News’.

Pakistan team has reached home after getting third position in the Asia Cup 2017. The Green-shirts’ performance was not convincing as they failed to reach the final, but winning the third position match has been termed a morale booster.

Pakistan defeated South Korea by 6-3 in the match for the third place. Pakistan hockey team lost two important matches. They had taken lead but failed to maintain it. The victory against South Korea was their only big achievement in the event.

A former player said Pakistan should have qualified for the final of Asia Cup at least. The PHF sources said that head coach Farhat Khan would submit the report about the team’s performance next week. In the light of his report PHF would review the future plans for the team, the sources said.

Farhat could not be reached on phone despite repeated attempts.Another former player said that if Pakistan had played some international matches before appearing in the Asia Cup, their team combination would have improved and their weaknesses, especially missing of goal scoring, would have been minimised.

Meanwhile, PHF is going to start the preparation for world hockey team’s tour to Pakistan in November-December. The world hockey team’s tour is part of PHF’s efforts to revive international hockey in the country.

The world XI will play three matches in Karachi, Lahore and Rawalpindi. The schedule of these matches will be decided after reviewing Pakistan’s domestic season because senior and junior national championships are also to be held and PHF does not want a clash of schedules. PHF high officials have claimed the world XI will have renowned players.