27 October 2004	Wednesday	12 Ramazan 1425

LAHORE, Oct 26: Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF), in a display of lack of confidence in its women wing, has decided not to send a team to compete in the 4th junior Asia Cup on the grounds of players being overage and unfit.

The competition is scheduled to be held in Hyderabad, India from Oct 30 to Nov 7.

The women's wing had announced a team for the contest after getting approval of the PHF three days before. But the issue of overage players was raised by certain quarters and the federation decided to withdraw the participation after wasting thousands of rupees in organising the training camp.

"The withdrawal is necessitated in view of injuries, some of a serious nature sustained by players during the course of their hectic training on the synthetic field," says a PHF press release.

"It may be further pointed out that some selection of players who concealed their age created serious problems."

Moreover, the procedural formalities of government clearance were not fulfilled by some of the players belonging to departments and also did not provide the requisite surety bond prescribed by the government."

Similarly, PHF had also cancelled the tour of the women's team to Kazakhstan early this year after incurring thousand of rupees in training camp expenses.