Juniors depart today with eyes on World Cup

KARACHI: The training camp of the national junior hockey team has been wrapped up and they will depart on Wednesday (today) to participate in the 5th Sultan Johor tournament in Malaysia.
It is pertinent to note that the Green-shirts will stay in Malaysia after the tournament and organise its training camp in the host country where Asia Cup will be held from November 14-22.
The Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) has made arrangements for the team to get training in Kuala Lumpur before Asia Cup.
The PHF has finalised the arrangements for the stay of the team in Malaysia.
PHF president Khalid Khokhar told ‘The News’ that PHF had arranged finances for the Malaysian tour as well as the preparation for Asia Cup.
He said that PHF did whatever it could for the betterment of the junior team. “They (the juniors) are our hope for the future and their performance in Malaysia could prove a turning point for our hockey. Thus, PHF provided them all possible facilities for the preparation,” he said.
The PHF president said the boys got rigorous training and staying in Malaysia after the tournament would be great for them. He said he hoped that they would perform even better after getting acclimatised to the Malaysian conditions during the training camp in the host country.
The team’s chief coach Tahir Zaman said that they would not play the tournament keeping in mind only winning the matches as other aspects were more important.
“One thing should be remembered that junior boys will play their first international match after one year. They have trained for only 10 days here, so they will take some time to gain rhythm and become a winning combination,” he said.
“Our target is to play tremendously in Asia Cup 2015, so that our place in the Junior World Cup 2016 could be ensured, and for attaining this we will play all our players to check the weaknesses before the big event,” Tahir said.
“The main thing is that the junior team is on the right track and improving. In some areas the progress is slow, but in some they are fast improving. Our penalty corner strikers are playing well and goalkeepers are improving slowly,” Tahir said.
“PHF did a tremendous job as far as the preparation of junior hockey team is concerned. The boys will have no issue of their daily allowances during the tour and other facilities,” he said.
“They are mentally relaxed and know that the entire PHF supports them; they have to play with their full strength and motivation to confirm their berth in World Cup 2016 through outstanding performance in Asia Cup 2015,” said the chief coach. He added that the penalty corner strikers Mubashir and Abu Bakar were the strength of the team and Dilber, Shan Irshad, and Azfar Yaqoob would be the spearheads.
Meanwhile, the national selection committee replaced injured Muhammad Adnan and included Zahidullah. Mohsin Sabir has been included in the 22-member squad for Malaysia.
Squad:
Goalkeepers: Talal Khalid, Ali Haider.
Full Backs: Mubashir Ali, Shah Faisal Shah, Atif Mushtaq.
Half Backs: Faizan, Abu Bakar, Muhammad Qasim, Sikandar Mustafa, Zahid Ullah, Junaid Kamal. Forwards: Shan Irshad, Azfar Yaqoob, Muhammad Dilber (Captain), Fahad Ullah, Suhail Riaz, Muhammad Atiq, Bilal Qadir, Adnan Anwar, Muhammad Naveed, Muhammad Rizwan, Mohsin Sabir.
Officials: Khalid Mukhtar Farani (Manager), Tahir Zaman (Head Coach), Muhammad Irfan, Zeeshan Ashraf (Assistant Coaches), Zahid Ali (Video Analyst), Dr Muhammad Adnan (Team Doctor).