11 November 2004	Thursday	27 Ramazan 1425

LAHORE, Nov 10: With barely a month left in Champions Trophy, Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) is yet to lay the new synthetic pitch at the venue - National Hockey Stadium (NHS), although the deadline has already passed.

A PHF official said the private company assigned to lay the surface failed to complete the work on deadline.

PHF is to complete the task of laying new turf on the instruction of International Hockey Federation (FIH) on Nov 10. Champions Trophy is scheduled to start from Dec 4.

"They (the private company) have reassured us the work will be completed in next five days," secretary of Pakistan Hockey Federation Brig Musarrat Ullah Khan (retd) said.

The official admitted that the workers of the company were laying the turf manually since they do not have the required machines.

The turfs at other centres have been damaged and are bumpy as they were laid manually.

"The company manufacturing the polygrass in Australia were to send three technical experts to Pakistan for this purpose, but no life insurance company in that country was ready to cover their life insurance," he said.

Team manager Samiullah said that his side was expected to start having sessions at the new turf from Nov 22. However, the manager was apprehensive that if the laying of turf was completed after Nov 22, his side could lose home ground advantage

While the PHF failed in completing the laying work of the turf on time, it also lags in restoration of the National Hockey Stadium, although the deadline to complete it was last August.