Hockey fraternity desperate for domestic events

KARACHI: Domestic hockey teams across the country are desperately waiting for the schedule of 65th National Championship and Pakistan’s professional league which PHF plans to organise.

The national championship which has been named after Pakistan’s legendary sports icon late Air Marshal Nurkhan, was to be organised during the last two months but has been postponed twice. The professional league has also been delayed repeatedly.

The PHF has been in a crisis for several months. Its secretary Olympian Shahbaz Ahmed resigned, then re-joined and then again resigned in the past few months. He has now been replaced by Asif Bajwa, whose appointment has been approved by the executive board of PHF.

Sources in the PHF said that they are working on both domestic events. The national championship would be organised first, they said. Its schedule would be announced after Eid-ul-Fitr, they added.

The sources said that the new PHF secretary is making contacts with the corporate sector to get them to support the professional league. They further said that domestic events calendar was being prepared and would be released soon.