ISLAMABAD: Head coach of national hockey team, Shahnaz Sheikh said on Thursday that he has suggested to the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) to immediately arrange a hockey tour for the national outfit to a foreign country in order to gauge the strengths and weaknesses of players ahead of the Asian Games.

“Our team has not featured in any international event for the last nine months while our rivals in the Asian Games have played the World Cup and will now appear in Commonwealth Games. They will get a lot of practice and exposure before the Asiad,” Shahnaz said on Thursday.

“I have suggested the PHF to either arrange fixtures with strong Asian teams such as Korea or Malaysia or organise a series with any of the leading European sides,” he said. “I have even proposed that we can play against top European clubs as playing against them too can benefit us a lot.”

Pakistan will take on three of their toughest rivals — Malaysia, hosts South Korea and arch-rivals India — in the Asian Games. The Games scheduled to be held in Incheon, South Korea in September, will also serve as qualifiers for the 2016 Olympic Games to be staged in Rio de Janeiro.

Thirty-seven Pakistan players are currently going through tough training at the Naseer Bunda Hockey Stadium in the second phase of the camp for Asiad which will end on Friday.

Shahnaz said the members of his coaching team have been trying hard to make the camp really productive.

“Like the first phase of the camp, the second phase has been very productive. In the first phase we tried hard to improve our players’ game through fitness and skill-enhancing drills. In the second phase we’ve given them a lot of practice,” he said.

“We will resume training for the third phase on Aug 3 while the trials for team selection will be held on Aug 13 and 14,” he added.

Published in Dawn, July 18th, 2014