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| September 8, 2005 | Thursday | Sha’aban 3, 1426 |
PHF’s ambitious SHL commences today
KARACHI, Sept 7: Pakistan launches its Super Hockey League (SHL) on Thursday in a bid to revive the fortunes of the sport. Inspired by India’s Premier Hockey League in January, Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) will be rolling off its own version, an 11-day long event to be played at the Hockey Club of Pakistan.
Although India had invited European and Malaysian players apart from Pakistanis for their league, PHF decided against inviting the Europeans.
To add some “colour” to the Rs2.63-million league PHF has, however, succeeded in inviting six Indians –- Dilip Tirkey, Sandeep Singh, Viren Resquina, Adrian D’Souza, Arjun Halappa and Gagan Ajit Singh.
Indian league was somewhat more multinational and appealing as influential Spanish veteran Juan Escarre was in action apart from two Malaysians — Kuhan Shanmuganathan and Nor Haji Bakar.
Interestingly, world record holder Sohail Abbas, who was the major attraction at the Indian league, has not been included in any of the six participating teams, although the penalty corner striker has been regularly featuring in domestic tournaments since his retirement last December.
Likewise, former captain Waseem Ahmad, a skilful half-back, will also be missing while he played in Indian league.
Surprisingly, discarded goalkeeper Ahmad Alam, Mohammad Nadeem, Kashif Jawwad and Sameer Hussain will be in action, although Ahmad and Nadeem were shown the door following debacle at Athens Olympics, saying they are a spent force.
Kashif was dropped earlier this year for Azlan Shah in Kuala Lumpur and then for recent European tour by the selectors. Right-in Mohammad Sarwar, who was not even considered for Athens Games was included in Baloch Lions but was later replaced by left-out Babar Abdullah after former skipper opted to stay away.
While discarded players have been invited, promising youngster like Ozair, Azlan Khan, Adeel Hussain, and Haseem Khan have been overlooked despite their fine performances at an under-18 tournament in Muscat, Oman, in April and recent under-17 national championship in Faisalabad.
In Oman, Azlan, an up and coming penalty corner striker, netted seven goals, Haseem and Ozair scored five goals apiece. Adeel struck 16 goals in the under-17 championship, Haseem was the pick of National Bank and was declared the best player of the championship with 10 goals, and Azlan was on target 12 times.
Like the format of the Indian league, matches will be played over four quarters of 17-and-a-half minutes each instead of the traditional two halves of 35 minutes. To ensure results, the teams will be required to play extra time with two halves of seven-and-half minutes each. In the event of a deadlock after extra time, the decision will be taken on penalty shootout.
However, the organizers have not yet made it clear whe-
ther the number of players will also be reduced gradually as was done in Indian league during over time.
It is not yet clear whether there will also be provisions for basketball-style time outs like the Indians introduced to their league.
Indian skipper Tirkey will be representing Sindh Qalandars, Sandeep Singh will play for Shan-e-Punjab, Resquina will be in Frontier Falcons, D’Souza in Baloch Lions, Halappa in Northern Cavaliers and Gagan Ajit in Capital Dynamos.
Sindh Qalandars will face Baloch Lions in the opener at 6.30pm in a day/light fixture, while Frontier Falcons take on Shan-e-Punjab at 9.30pm under lights.
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