Green-shirts’ training camp shifted to Karachi

KARACHI: The ongoing training camp of national hockey team in Lahore will be shifted to Karachi from Tuesday.

Trials will also be held in Karachi on October 11. Pakistan are to participate in the Asian Champions Trophy in Oman, which is scheduled to be held from October 18-28.

Meanwhile, it was learnt that the team management wanted to replace captain Rizwan Sr with some other senior player because he did not participate in the training camp. Irfan Senior, goalkeeper Imran Butt and Ummar Bhutta are the favourites for leading Pakistan.

It was also learnt that the selection committee and the team management wanted to induct at least two new faces in the forward line for Asian Champions Trophy as they were disappointed by the performance of the forwards in Asian Games.

The forward line failed to produce good results in Asian Games and a couple of events before that.A member of the team management said Pakistan needed an energetic forward who could scare the rivals’ defence.

The team management is working extensively on forwards and PC executioners during the training camp and hopes to find the solution to the failure of forward line in the coming event, he said.

PHF sources said that Pakistan would play a practice match before the Asian Champions Trophy.