Pakistan hockey team’s training camp starts today

KARACHI: Almost all players called to Pakistan hockey team’s training camp reported in Lahore at National Hockey Stadium.

They will have their first session on Saturday (today), PHF associate secretary Olympian Ayaz Mehmood informed ‘The News’. The training camp is being organised to prepare a team for FIH Pro League which starts later this month. Pakistan will play their first match against Argentina on February 3.

There will be physical training in the morning session and hockey practice in the evening. A total of 12 members of Pakistan hockey team who participated in the 2018 World Cup in India last month have not been called.

More than 90 percent players are juniors. Manager-cum-head coach Saeed Khan will be assisted by Rehan Butt and Danish Kaleem. The PHF is yet to announce the new selection committee as the Islahuddin-led body has completed its term.

Pakistan hockey team is facing crisis in all departments — goalkeeping, attack, defence, and penalty corner execution. Pakistan have not had a good centre forward for a long time. Even Holland’s Roelant Oltmans and Olympian Hasan Sardar, who were the custodians of Pakistan hockey team until recently, failed to produce a quality centre forward.

Assistant coach Rehan said that Pakistan needed strong, skillful, and motivated players in all departments. “We need players not only for the centre forward position but also for the right and left wings. There are players who played against the World XI, against senior Canadian team, and played in Australia’s domestic under-17 championship,” he said.

“The old players have been left out. We are going to start working with junior players. There are only a few players in the training camp who were part of the team for the World Cup,” he added.