KARACHI, June 25: Pakistan have not been invited to participate in the 4th edition of the Asian Schools Hockey Championship that will be held in October this year.

The Asian schools meet was scheduled to be held next month but has been postponed by the Malaysian Schools Sports Council (MSSM), in a bid to get the best to compete in the tournament. The event will now take place in October. The new dates will be decided later this week.

He did not give any reason why Pakistan were not invited to compete in the event.

The postponement would also give hosts Pahang more time to either repair or re-surface the Kuantan Hockey stadium pitch.

“So far, only Malaysia, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Indonesia have confirmed participation.

“As this is the first time Malaysia is hosting the championship, we would like the cream of Asian countries to take part.

“That is why we are trying our best to get more countries especially India, South Korea and China who are crowd-pullers, to compete,” he added.

When the June 1 deadline passed, of the 12 countries invited Brunei, Macau, Hong Kong and Laos had declined while there had been no response from India, South Korea, China and the Phillipines.—PPI