PHF writes to authorities for resumption of activities

KARACHI: The secretary PHF Olympian Asif Bajwa has written a letter to federal and four provincial governments seeking their guidance and cooperation for resumption of hockey activities under SOPs near the end of August, ‘The News’ learnt on Thursday.

The PHF secretary sent a communication to the authorities concerned in the federal and provincial governments, informing them that PHF would start the training camps of national senior and junior teams and organise domestic hockey events.

PHF secretary told ‘The News’ that PHF has made up its mind about starting hockey activities in the country by the end of August. “But we need the permission of the federal government,” he said.

“As soon as we receive the government’s response, we will start finalising our programme,” he said.

“Right now it is not clear in what manner the 5-a-side hockey tournament would be organsed. It’s all premature. Either PHF would itself establish the participating teams or departmental or provincial teams would be invited. It would be decided later but at least 10 teams would participate in the tournament, which would be the first hockey activity since the out break of corona virus in the country in March 2020,” he said.

The PHF secretary further said that Karachi, Lahore and Gojra were being considered for hosting the tournament.

The training camps of Pakistan senior and junior hockey teams are likely to be organised before the 5-a-side tournament.

Sources said that details related to the training camps and the 5-a-side event would be finalised after Eid-ul-Azha.

Sources said that if COVID-19 pandemic remained under control in August, the training camps were likely to be organised in the second or the third week of August in Lahore so that the players could get ready for the 5-a- side event. The players have been following the home-based training programme given to them by PHF for past many months.

Before appearing in any event it would be necessary for players to improve their form and fitness, officials said. Otherwise, there would be danger of injuries, they added.