January 15, 2008	Tuesday	Muharram 05, 1429

BANGALORE, Jan 14: Pakistan have withdrawn from a proposed three-nation hockey tournament involving Belgium and India, scheduled to be held in Bangalore from Jan 22.

Stating this, India's chief national coach Joaquim Carvalho said the tournament would now be played as a five-Test series between Belgium and India.

“Pakistan have pulled out of the tournament and the Indian Hockey Federation has now scheduled the five-Test series, which would be played from Jan 25 to 31, in Chennai,” he stated.

The tournament was proposed to provide the Indian players some vital match practice ahead of the Olympic qualifiers.

On team preparation for the qualifers in Chile from March 1 to 9, he said: “The national team is always on job of achieving their goal. Our immediate goal is to gain a berth for the Beijing Olympics and then try to be successful in the Games.

“Needless to say that probables are always on job of gaining berth and players have been training since the Asia Cup win.”—Agencies