Senior hockey team’s training camp begins in second week of Feb

KARACHI: Pakistan senior hockey team’s training camp would be held from the second week of February in Lahore, ‘The News’ learnt on Saturday.

The training camp is being held to prepare for Sultan Azlan Shah hockey tournament to be held in Malaysia in April.

The 29th edition of the prestigious Sultan Azlan Shah Cup will begin on April 11 with six teams fighting for the title. The sides are Pakistan, Malaysia, Australia, Canada, Japan and South Korea. They will play on single-round league basis with top two teams to play the final.

This is after a gap of several years that Pakistan will be playing the Sultan Azlan Shah tournament.

Head coach Olympian Khwaja Junaid told ‘The News’ that the team management would meet national selection committee in a day or two to finalise the players for the camp.

He said that 30-35 players will be called for the camp.

He said that the camp is being organised more than two months before the event “because we are ranked 17th ranked and we have to work hard with the boys in all aspects of the game.

“The players lack international hockey matches experience, while the rival teams are far ahead of us. We will try our best to train the players, make them physically tough, mentally strong and polish their skills to compete against the strong teams of the world,” he said.

He said that psychological experts would be invited to deliver lectures to improve the performance of the players through mental power.

Junaid said that hockey legends would also be invited to motivate the new players by talking about how well Pakistan played in the past.

He said the training camp would be continued till the departure of the team for Malaysia. But the players would be given rest for three to five days during the camp, he added.

The head coach mentioned that the Green-shirts lost matches because of their inability to cope up with pressure. “We were winning the match against the Netherlands in Olympics qualifying round 6-4, but the hosts scored two goals in the last moments,” he added.

Meanwhile, the national juniors training camp which had been closed because of T20 cricket series against Bangladesh is yet to be restrated. They are to prepare for Junior Asia Cup to be held in Bangladesh in June.