July 18, 2007	Wednesday	Rajab 02, 1428

LAHORE, July 17: Eight teams will take part in the Talent Grooming hockey tournament to be staged at the National Hockey Stadium from Aug 6 to 14. Seven teams have been selected from the respective training and coaching centres which are currently in progress at Lahore, Faisalabad, Karachi, Quetta, Bannu, Peshawar and Bahawalpur while the Army squad were selected for the tournament by the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF).

The teams have been divided into two pools for the matches to be played on league basis. Top four teams will enter the Aug 12 semi-finals followed by the final to be played on Pakistan’s Independence Day.

This whole exercise is being done to widen the pool of players for Pakistan selection for the Lahore Champions Trophy in December.

Teams:

Pool A: Karachi, Faisalabad, Bahawalpur, Quetta.

Pool B: Lahore, Peshawar, Bannu, Army.

Tournament schedule:

Aug 6: Army v Bannu; Lahore v Peshawar.

Aug 7: Karachi v Faisalabad; Bahawalpur v Quetta.

Aug 8: Bannu v Lahore; Army v Peshawar.

Aug 9: Karachi v Bahawalpur; Faisalabad v Quetta.

Aug 10: Bannu v Peshawar; Lahore v Army.Aug 11: Faisalabad v Bahawalpur; Karachi v Quetta.

Aug 12: Semi-finals (winners Pool A v Runners-up Pool B; runners-up Pool A v winners Pool B.

Aug 14: Third position match, final.