Afghans arrive to feature in Hockey Series Open

KARACHI: Afghanistan hockey team reached Pakistan on Wednesday to participate in the Hockey Series Open (HSO) which is scheduled to be held at the National Hockey Stadium, Lahore from December 17-22.

Apart from Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Nepal and a team from Pakistan will take part in the tournament. Teams of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Nepal are expected to arrive on December 15.

Pakistan are not fielding their national team as they will be featuring in the inaugural FIH Pro League starting January 19. The hosts will enter a second string side in the HSO and the matches they play will not be counted as official games.

Greenshirts will play their first match of the FIH Pro League against Argentina on February 2.The tournament replaces the FIH Hockey World League and will serve as qualifiers for the World Cup and Olympic Games.

Nine teams will compete according to the round-robin format in home and away matches, with the top two teams advancing to the final to be played on June 30 in Amsterdam.Meanwhile, the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) faces an uphill task after Greenshirts’ dismal performance in the 2018 Hockey World Cup.

The federation, which is going through financial crisis and faced difficulty in bearing the expanses of the national team’s participation in the Asian Champions Trophy and World Cup, must now deal with the challenge of preparing a new team after the expected retirement of several senior players.

The PHF had also announced to stage the country’s first professional hockey league in January. Several foreign players have been invited to participate in the Pakistan Super Hockey League (PSHL).