Trials for Champions Trophy on May 30

KARACHI: Pakistan senior hockey team trials will be held on May 30 at Abdul Sattar Edhi Hockey Stadium in Karachi.

Besides the selection committee, PHF president and secretary will also be present on the occasion, The News learnt on Sunday.Pakistan hockey players are attending a training camp in Karachi these days.

The Champions Trophy is scheduled to be held in Netherlands from June 23. Pakistan head coach Roelant Oltmans, will return on Monday (today) from Holland, Pakistan manager Hasan Sardar informed this scribe.

The plan of coaching and training he had given to the team management was being implemented as usual, the manager said. Sardar said 22 players would be selected for the tour. “We want to take four more players there as we will hold a camp in Holland before the Champions Trophy,” he said.

The team manager said that Pakistan would depart on June 3 for Holland where they would attend a two-week camp to acclimatise with the conditions there. PHF has hired two specialised coaches, for goalkeeping and penalty corner drag flicking for the camp there, on the recommendations of Oltmans.

Sardar further said that two practice matches against Austria, one against Holland and two matches against local teams had been confirmed. “But we are taking the Champions Trophy as an opportunity to gain experience against the top teams. We will test our players’ skills,” he said.

“We will give tough time to each team and try our best to repeat the performance of Commonwealth Games, where we did not lose any match,” Sardar added. The team manager said their focus was on Asian Games. “The Champions Trophy is the last opportunity to finalise our preparation for Asian Games,” he added.

“The teams in the Champions Trophy include the World Champions, the Olympic Champions, and the European Champions. Playing against them will help us ahead of Asian Games. He said that Pakistan players would do their best to beat archrivals India, against whom they played a draw in Commonwealth Games. Sardar said that weather was very hot in Karachi. “But we train the boys early in the morning from 6 to 8 and in the evening from 5 to 7,” he said.