ISLAMABAD: As Pakistan hockey is currently at its lowest ebb after losing twice in succession to the 17th ranked Japan, Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) president Brig (r) Khalid Sajjad Khokhar said that World XI will be visiting Pakistan from January 10. “World XI is to play in Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad. Interior Ministry and Army have promised to provide security cover to the visiting team,” the PHF president said while speaking to the media.The PHF, however, is yet to reveal the names of players who would represent World XI during the series in Pakistan. Khokhar said that Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah has expressed his willingness to buy two franchises of the Pakistan Hockey League.“The provincial government has also given us a grant worth Rs100 million. In total the current PHF bosses have received a whopping Rs580 million in just two years. Despite that the national team’s ranking has dipped to all time low. When the current office-bearers had taken over the federation then Pakistan was at No 7 in the world ranking but it has now fallen to No 13. Their ranking is expected to go down further after two successive defeats against Japan in the world. The PHF president admitted that the team had shown poor performance in the four-nation hockey in Australia. “We are working hard on team’s improvement. At the same time we are busy in establishing academies and improving standard of our goalkeeping.” Pakistan conceded 17 goals in the four-nation event and scored just four highlighting the team’s poor conversion and playing standard.The PHF president added that now the federation was focusing the team’s performance in the Commonwealth Games scheduled to be held in April and in 2018 Asian Games. He said the PHF has also approached the government for the audit of the federation.Khokhar also claimed that a total of six teams from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa participated in the junior hockey event in Khairpur (Sindh). “We have decided to conduct open trials to select KPK teams on November 30.” The PHF president added that Tahir Zaman will be given important responsibility very soon. He also advised the KPK Hockey Association to contact him instead of going to the court of law and indulging themselves in legal battle.
