World Cup 2018: Pak hockey team leaves for India tomorrow

LAHORE: Pakistan hockey team will leave for India via Wagah border on Saturday to participate in the World Cup.The team leaves for India after a slight delay in issuance of visas of head coach Tauqeer Dar, assistant coach Danish Kaleem and M Irfan Junior.

The World Cup will be played at Indian city of, Bhubaneswar from November 28, whereas Pakistan will kick off their campaign on December 1 against Germany. “Three members of our contingent still have not got the visas. It makes no sense to send the contingent in two batches,” Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) secretary-general Shahbaz Ahmad said. The team will fly to World Cup destination Bhubaneswar from Amritsar.

Shahbaz said that he did not want his team to be homesick, so the slight delay was not an issue. “Also, there is no point coming earlier when our match is on December 1. We also decided to postpone our departure so that the boys don’t feel homesick,” he added.

A total of 16 teams are drawn into four groups, each containing four teams and each team plays each other team in its group once. The first-placed team in each group advances to the quarter-finals, while the second-and third-placed teams in each group go into the crossover matches. From there on a single-elimination tournament will be played, said a press release issued here.

Challenging the Netherlands and Germany are Malaysia and Pakistan, two teams that also have plenty of talent amongst their ranks. Green Shirts captain M Rizwan Sr will be single-minded in his ambition to ensure that his team performs to the best of their abilities in Bhubaneswar.

On Thursday evening, DG Sports Punjab Nadeem Sarwar visited the hockey camp for the World Cup at the National Hockey Stadium, Lahore. He wished the boys success and told them to put their best to make the nation proud.

Sarwar said national hockey team is determined to offer excellent performance in the upcoming hockey World Cup tournament. Team Manager Hasan Sardar and head coach Tauqeer Dar warmly received the DG Sports Punjab upon reaching the Mini Hockey Stadium. They also presented him with a T-shirt and a hockey stick signed by members of national hockey team.