October 29, 2007	Monday	Shawwal 16, 1428

MACAU, Oct 28: Pakistan’s hopes to win a gold at the Macau Indoor Asian Games have been raised with the fast approaching kabbadi event despite the challenging presence of Asian champions and arch-rivals, India in the arena.

In the Games in which Pakistan has made a token participation by competing in only a few disciplines including athletics, chess and snooker, their medal-winning hope is the kabaddi event which will be played in a typically sub-continental style.

Pakistan will face Malaysia on Tuesday in its inaugural match of the kabaddi competition followed by two games on Wednesday against Iran and Japan.

Pakistan’s most important match of the single league competition will be against India on Nov 1 and then two matches against Bangladesh and Sri Lanka on Nov 2. The final will be played on Nov 3.

Losing a match will not be making much difference for their qualification for the ultimate showdown but two defeats may spoil their dreams.

“It is a very difficult format in which we will be playing back-to-back matches, sometimes two matches in a day, and our survival heavily depends on our performance which has to be top notch at all times,” said team captain Muhammad Akram while talking to newsmen here on Sunday.

After Pakistan’s defeat at the hands of India in the final of Doha Asian Games kabaddi tournament, the new look team Pakistan, having four new faces, is determined to put up a much improved show.

The fresh blood inducted in the team comprises Naveel Akram, Irfan Ali, Basharat Subhanni and Sajjad Hussain and the team management is hoping to gel experience with youth to fetch good results here.

“We had a strenouos training camp of around five months and we concentrated hard to overcome the grey areas. We also brought in new players to replace some ageing ones,” said team manager, Irfan Gohar. —APP