15 January 2004	Thursday	22 Ziqa'ad 1424

KARACHI, Jan 14: In the absence of top teams, PTCL will defend their title in the Under-20 national junior hockey championship which rolls off on Thursday at two venues amid controversy involving players representing departments illegally.

While the leading sides Wapda, Habib Bank, Pakistan Police and Customs, will not be featuring in the 20-team contest, there is furore over the violation of transfer of players rules.

"These four teams are not participating as they have no Under-20 players," said Muhammad Shafique, organizing secretary of the championship, on Wednesday.However, the organizers will face trouble as KESC and PTCL have inducted players from different departments to make their squads formidable.

For instance, Rizwan Khan, Iftikhar and Junaid from HBL, are representing KESC, while Peshawar-based HBL player Yasir Islam, the promising player of an U-19 international tournament in Malaysia, is playing for PTCL.

HBL had failed to prevent Sohail Abbas and Waseem Ahmad from representing Wapda without transfer at last year's senior national championship. Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) violated its own rules by letting the pair play for Wapda after fines.

PHF constitution's article 25 (e) says: "The transfer period of player(s) from one club to another shall be first fortnight of January and July each year. Department/service player(s) may seek transfer from parent club/district within one month of their joining service."

Organizers were themselves doubtful of the quality of the teams like Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Northern Area, Pakistan Education Board (PEB), Islamabad, but added they believed in quality rather than quantity.

"We believe in quality. But we have no option as they ask PHF to let them play. However, how worthy are they will be proved when they play," Shafique, also director domestic hockey, said but had no idea when asked how many hockey grounds Northern Areas, Azad Jammu and Kashmir have.

Huge number of teams has forced organizers to schedule four and sometimes eight matches each day at Hockey Club of Pakistan and UBL Sports Complex.

Pool 'A': PTCL, Punjab Colours, NWFP Colours, Sindh Whites, Northern Area.

Pool 'B': Railways, Islamabad, Balochistan Whites, Punjab Blues, KESC.

Pool 'C': National Bank, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, NWFP Whites, POF, Sindh Blues.

Pool 'D': Sindh Colours, Balochistan Colours, Punjab Whites, Pakistan Army, Pakistan Educations Board.

Thursday's fixtures:

Punjab Blues v Balochistan Whites at 8.00am at UBL; NBP v AJ&K at 10.00am at UBL; Railways v Islamabad at 11.30am at UBL; PTCL v Northern Area at 1.00pm at UBL; NWFP Whites v POF at 8.00am at HCP; Punjab Whites v Army at 10.00am at HCP; Punjab Colours v NWFP Colours at 1.00pm at HCP; Sindh Colours v Balochistan Colours at 3.00pm at HCP.