Final phase of hockey camp for European tour begins today

KARACHI: The third phase of Pakistan hockey team’s training camp will begin from Wednesday (today) in Lahore and the players will continue their training till their departure for Europe later this month.

Sources told ‘The News’ on Tuesday that the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) will announce the Europe-bound hockey squad in a couple of days as the national selection committee has picked 24 players for the third phase of training camp. From these 24 players, PHF wanted to select 21-23 players for the European tour so that maximum number of players get the experience of playing international hockey matches against the best and strongest hockey teams of the world.

It is also learnt that a meeting of the national selection committee will be held in Lahore in the second week of this month to finalise the Pakistan hockey team for the European tour and for Asia Cup 2022 scheduled to be held in Jakarta during May-June.

To qualify for the Hockey World Cup 2023, Pakistan hockey team have to reach the semifinal of the Asia Cup 2022 as four teams from Asia will qualify for the mega event.

It must be noted that Pakistan have played very little international hockey in the past two years due to which their performance graph has gone down sharply.

An official of the hockey team management, when contacted, said that the third phase will be crucial as players training will be done keeping in mind the requirements pertaining to their forthcoming matches against European teams and Asian teams in Asia Cup.

He hoped the seven international hockey matches against five of the best hockey playing countries will give immense international exposure to the national players.

“These matches will give us opportunities to check and test our players as to how they fare against tough opponents,” he said.

It should be remembered that after hectic efforts PHF has managed to arrange international matches with five European countries: Holland, Germany, Belgium, France and Spain during the tour of Europe.

It is learnt that Pakistan will play two matches against Netherlands, and at least one match against the other three countries.

Sources said that it is expected that the Pakistan team would leave the country on April 20 for the European tour.