May 24, 2008	Saturday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 18, 1429

KARACHI, May 23: With just six weeks to go for the start of the 2008 Junior Asia Cup in the South Indian city of Hyderabad, Pakistan colts are confident of giving a forceful performance in the ten-nation contest that would earn them a ticket to next year’s Youth World Cup.

In the meantime, however, national junior team officials are concerned over the lack of last-minute match practice ahead of the Junior Asia Cup, to be played from July 8-18.

Pakistan’s junior team manager Jahangir Butt said here on Friday that in spite of hectic efforts, Pakistan have so far been unable to set up a home series with any of the leading Asian nations before the Junior Asia Cup.

“We’ve been trying to invite a leading Asia team for a full series here in June before our team goes to India for the Junior event,” Jahangir said. “But so far neither of the teams have given a positive response to our invitation,” added the former Olympian, who is supervising Pakistan’s preparations for the Junior Asia Cup and, more importantly, the Junior World Cup to be jointly hosted by Malaysia and Singapore next August.

The top three teams from the ten-nation Junior Asia Cup will qualify for the Junior World Cup which means that a finish on the victory podium should suffice for the Pakistanis. But the former world junior champions are aiming to win the Junior Asia Cup title on Indian soil.

“We will be going all out for the title in Hyderabad,” said Jahangir. “Because a victory in the (Junior) Asia Cup will be a huge boost before the World Cup.”

Jahangir added that he and fellow officials were still awaiting the draws of the Junior Asia Cup. “We will try and fix some warm-up games in Hyderabad ahead of the Junior Asia Cup but that would only happen after the draws of the tournament are announced.”

India, who won the world junior title in 2001, will be the favourites on home soil in the tournament which will be competed by their top rivals Pakistan, Korea, China, Japan, Malaysia, Chinese Taipei, Singapore and Oman.

Jahangir said that Pakistan would have benefited a lot from a home series just before the Junior Asia Cup. “It’s always good to play competitive matches before a major tournament,” he said.

Pakistan have sent invitations to Korea, China and Japan for a full junior test series in June but have so far failed to get a positive response from any of them.

He said that he would try to fix a series with the national senior team but conceded that the seniors might not be interested in such a series as they would only return home next month after a marathon tour of Europe.

He said that the team management will try to find ways to provide their players with some good match practice before going to India tentatively on July 3.—Agencies