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LAHORE: Pakistan’s junior hockey team will take part in an 8-nation tournament starting from November 5 in Malaysia as a part of its preparations for next year's World Cup qualifying round.
“After achieving productive results the junior team will embark upon on another tough voyage which is an 8-nation tournament in which top teams like Germany, India and South Korea are also participating,” Rana Mujahid, chief coach and manager of the junior team told APP.
He said the team will start its preparations for the event by undergoing camp training in October and besides participating in domestic tournaments.
He termed the 8-nation tournament “a test to judge the progress of players and team's upward trend” based on its showing and recent results.
“We will be playing a mixture of European and Asian top teams and by that way we will be able to know the individual talent and prospect of players in the game.”
“Junior team has finally become a source to produce players for the senior team and in the recent selection of Pakistan senior team for the 1st Asian Champions Trophy, four of its players namely Mohamamd Umer Bhutta, Rizwan Jr, Kashif Javed and Ali Shan are from the junior side. This is particularly satisfactory and will address the area of revival of hockey at grass root level,” Mujhahid asserted.
The former Olympian pointed out that junior team still needed to work on conversion of penalty corners and to better handle crunch situations, especially the dying moments of a match.
“These gray areas were noticed during the Egypt series and we are working on them by bettering the skills and techniques of the junior players who need highest level of exposure and experience.”
The junior team beat Egypt 2-1 in a recently concluded series hosted by the African country.
“We managed to overcome a rough and tough opposition in Egypt because of players collective efforts and determination,” he added.
Mujahid pointed out that Mazhar Abbas, Tassawar Abbas, Bilal Qadir and Khalid Bhatti are the four other junior players who were knocking on the door of the senior team.
To a question, he said, PHF has a pool of around 200 junior players who are the produce of PHF hockey academies functioning across the country.
“Hopefully by the end of this year we will be able to finalise our junior team for the world up qualifying rounds and attaining productive results in the 8-nation tournament will add to the confidence of that team,” he said.
