KARACHI, May 20 Hockey goalkeeping enthusiasts from all over Pakistan will be appearing for trials at the National Hockey Stadium in Lahore on Friday for selection in the first Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) Goalkeepers Academy.

Coaching at the academy will mainly be carried out under the able supervision of the former national team chief coach and former goalkeeper Olympian Shahid Ali Khan.

“Besides myself there is panel of five former Pakistan team goalkeepers, who will also be in charge of providing coaching at the academy,” said Shahid while speaking to Dawn on Thursday.

“They are Ahmad Alam, Abdul Ghafoor of the Lahore hockey academy, Samsam Qadir who hails from Customs, Arshad Hussain of NBP and Mohammad Sabir from the hockey academy in Sialkot,” he provided.

“But there is always room for more of our former colleagues, who would like to offer their services at the academy so the panel can grow, too,” he added.

About whether there was really any need for such an academy here when there are just one or two goalkeepers included in the side during a tournament, Shahid pointed out “We are very weak in the goalkeeping department and this kind of a specialised academy for goalkeepers was the need of the hour.”

He added “I have also been a part of a similar programme for under-12 to under-20 goalkeepers in Malaysia. The best goalkeeper of the recently-concluded Sultan Azlan Shah Cup, Malaysia's Kumar Subramanian, is also a product of that academy.”

The academy in Pakistan will also be run on the lines of the one Shahid worked with in Malaysia. It will train goalkeepers in four age categories — U-14, U-16, U-18 and U-22.

“The U-22 boys will serve as a backup for our senior team, boys from the U-18 batch will be picked for the junior team while the U-16 and U-14 boys will be a backup for the U-22 and U-18 categories. This how we will never run out of good goalkeepers for our senior, Whites and junior outfits,” he explained.

“The youngsters will get proper training as the process of keeping them all in practice will be ongoing what with our current team keepers joining us also whenever they are free from national camp,” he said.

The trials will carry on till May 27 and the initial academy camp, the date for which is yet to be announced, will be held in Karachi.

“Well, that is how I will be able to give time to the academy as I'm stationed in Karachi,” Shahid concluded.