KARACHI, Nov 20: Pakistan juniors wait for the training to start as hockey administrators preferred to send their coach Ayaz Mahmood to an offshore “coaches course” rather than depute him at the camp.

The juniors tournament will be hosted by Kuala Lumpur between Dec 7 and 14.

The reason for Ayaz’s absence is a International Hockey Federation (FIH) coaches course from Nov 21 to 28 in Perth, Australia, where Ayaz and Qamar Ibrahim will be Pakistani participants.

The camp, which started from Nov 18 has been set up at Steel Mills Complex, is currently being supervised by manager Col Abdur Rauf and Ayaz’s deputy Salman Wahab, while another assistant coach Asif Bajwa is also missing from the camp.

According to manager, Asif, who could not join the camp because of his ailing mother, is likely to join Thursday.

Ironically, Rauf was also absent from the camp Wednesday as he was busy in some minor hockey league involving a veterans team. He will remain absent from the camp for another day which, he said, would be a rest day.

But Ayaz did not came to the camp since day one as he is busy completing travel formalities and waiting for his Australian visa from Islamabad.

“If we get the visas, we will fly Thursday morning to return on Nov 28. It’s useless to join camp before taking a final decision as we can receive our visas any time,” Ayaz said.

After the recent “reshuffling” by the PHF in the team managements, Asif has been transferred from seniors to juniors while Qamar switched over from juniors to Whites.

Qamar, who is the Pakistan Whites coach, is also missing the training camp in Lahore for the league to be played between Pakistan Greens, Whites and Juniors in December.

The team manager said all the 43 trainees had reported and being “looked after” by him and Salman.

Ayaz and Qamar were scheduled to attend another “course” in Cologne, Germany, during the training camp here for a four-nation contest in Cairo from Sept 8 to 11.

However, a refusal by the German embassy to give visas to the pair, prevented them to leave for the German city.

Ayaz’s non-availability shows how PHF contradicts its claims as, according to the new system, only coach is and should be responsible for the training, while manager looks after administrative matters.