KARACHI, Feb 26: Pakistan's preparations for April's Junior Asia Cup hockey may be jeopardized because of too little time for the competition, team officials said on Thursday.
"The main round of the national championship will be organized from April 1 to 11, while Asia Cup begins from April 20. If the programme of the national competition goes as planned, it will surely cause trouble for us. There will be hardly any time for us to select and prepare the team," manager Jahangir Butt said.
Jahangir said while there should be sufficient time for the 10-nation contest to be hosted by Karachi's Hockey Club of Pakistan, he would have hardly eight or nine days if the programme of the national event was not changed.
The former Olympian said most of the probables would be busy representing their departments at the championship which would hamper national junior team's build-up.
The former Olympian said he would suggest the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) to reschedule the final round of the championship by holding it after the Asia Cup.
"The national championship should be organized either immediately after the qualifying rounds which end on March 28 or after the Asia Cup. It will give us time to have the best available pool and time to groom the boys," he said.
The manager said he had planned to call some more players for the Asia Cup camp which he said should start early April. "We will call some more boys in addition to the players we already have for the forthcoming series against The Netherlands and Malaysia to form the best possible squad," the official said.
