Junior hockey team’s training second phase from today

KARACHI: The second phase of Pakistan junior hockey team’s training camp will be held in Karachi at Abdul Sattar Edhi Hockey Stadium from Sunday (today).

A total of 22 players will participate in this camp.

The PHF has issued the names of the players and directed them to report to the national junior team management.

PHF has directed the team management and participants to strictly follow SOPs related to COVID-19.

Pakistan junior team head coach Danish Kaleem said that those 15 players who attended the first training camp and seven more would be part of the second phase.

“We have a bunch of 40-45 players but due to COVID-19 we did not call a big group of players to participate in the training. Keeping in mind the timing of Junior Asia Cup 2021 in June in Bangladesh we have made a programme of training of our players in groups,” he said.

It is pertinent to mention here that some junior players also got training in Lahore with the seniors.

The head coach further said that the plan of the first phase would be continued in the second phase as morning training would be focused on physical training and the evening session on hockey skills.

He said that the pace of the training camp would be faster this time, and individual skills of each player would be given attention.

Danish said that team management noted the weaknesses of the players related to their hockey skills and techniques during their training and practice matches and then addressed them either individually or in groups.

He added that videos of drills and matches were regularly recorded and then shown to players so that they knew what mistakes they were making and how they can remove them.

He further said that lack of international and advanced hockey matches is their main concern. “We will tackle the issue by having them play against the senior team in the coming days. PHF is also trying to organise series with any strong Asian team so that they have some experience of tough and advanced matches before appearing in the Junior Asia Cup 2021,” he said.

The players who have been called: Rana Waheed (WAPDA) Gazanfar Ali, (SSGC), Moin Shakeel (SSGC), Waqar (WAPDA), Mohsin Khan (Air Force), Umair Sattar (Mari Petroleum) Aqeel (Mari Petroleum), Abdullah (Mari Petroleum), Rooman Khan (Mari Petroleum), Murtaza Yaqoob (Mari Petroleum), Hammad Anjum (WAPDA), Hanan Shahid (Lahore), Ali Raza (Faisalabad), Shah Zaib Khan (Sindh), Asif Haneef (Mari Patroleum), Anees (Punjab), Mohsin Hassan (Punjab), Hammad Ali (Navy), Usama Bashir (Air Force), Waqar Ali (Mari Petroleum), Samiullah Khan ( Customs).

The team management consists of Olympian Danish Kaleem, camp commandant and head coach, Zaheer Ahmed Baber, coach, Muddassar Ali Khan, coach, Nadeem Sattar, physiotherapist, and Abu Zar Umrao, vedio analyst.