LAHORE: After failing to engage any European team for a bilateral series before the national senior team competes in the World Hockey League, the Pakistan Hockey Federation has decided to hold a triangular event involving senior, Whites and Development squads on home soil.

The triangular series will start in the first week of May. The WHL, which will work as qualifiers for the 2018 World Cup, is scheduled to be staged in London from June 15 to 25.

Earlier, the PHF negotiated with its French and Spanish counterparts in order to get some Test matches for the national side before the London event but none of the two European teams was available to play against Pakistan because of their busy schedule.

Spain, France decline series offer from PHF

“Yes, no European team is available to play Pakistan as they have already finalised their activity plan,” Khawaja Junaid, head coach of Pakistan’s national team, said while talking to Dawn here on Thursday.

Negating the impression that the PHF had belatedly started working on its plans for a series against European outfits, Junaid reckoned it seemed no European team wanted to play matches before the WHL to maintain focus on their own training plans.

Here it is pertinent to mention that Pakistan recently suffered a great loss when — surprisingly — the Malaysian Hockey Confederation (MHC) did not invite the green-shirts to this year’s Sultan Azlan Shah Cup scheduled to be held in Ipoh from April 29.

While overlooking Pakistan, which came as a stunning snub to the PHF, the MHC invited Great Britain for the traditional event. Other teams besides hosts Malaysia in the Azlan Shah Cup include Australia, New Zealand, India and Japan.

The Azlan Shah Cup, the inaugural edition of which was staged back in 1983, was a major opportunity for Pakistan to get much-needed international exposure before testing their muscle in the WHL which would feature world’s top teams.

After failing to field its national junior team in last year’s World Cup held in India mainly due to applying for visa late, followed by a could shoulder from the MHC and now another setback in the form of series decline from European teams, Pakistan hockey — which has already been badly struggling for the last three decades — is going into further gloom.

Meanwhile, according to a PHF press release, the senior team’s training camp will be held here at the National Hockey Stadium from April 22.

Moreover, the joint camp for the probables of other two teams — Whites and Development squad — is scheduled to start on April 25 at the Johar Town Hockey Stadium, Lahore.

Probables for senior team camp:

Amjad Ali, Azhar Abbas (goalkeepers), Niwaz Ashfaq, Mohammad Aleem Bilal, Abu Bakr Mahmood, Mohammad Rizwan Junior, Mohammad Atif Mushtaq, Mohammad Faisal Qadir, Tanzeem-ul-Hassan, Tasawar Abbas, Ammad Shakeel Butt, Mohammad Umar Bhutta, Mohammad Irfan Junior, Mohammad Arslan Qadir, Ali Shan, Mohammad Dilber, Ajaz Ahmed, Abdul Haseem Khan, Mohammad Azfar Yaqoob, Umair Sarfraz, Mubashar Ali, Qazi Asfand Yar.

Probables for joint camp:

Goalkeepers: Hafiz Umair Ali, Munib-ur-Rehman, Umar Zaman, Usman Malik, Jawad Ahmad, Amir Hamza.

Defenders: M. Asim Jonty, Taimoor Malik, Mohammad Haseeb, Asad Aziz, Amir Sultan, Faizan, Shah Faisal Shah, Mohammad Imran, Ali Raza, Mohammad Saleem, Arbab Rafiq, Usman Aslam, Ghazanfar Ali, Mohammad Iftikhar, Sohail Manzoor, Abid Bhatti.

Forwards: Nohaiz Zahid Malik, Shan Irshad, Faisal Rasheed, Mohammad Rizwan, Awais-ur-Rehman, Irhas Bin Qamar, Sheharyar Abbasi, Shajeeh Ahmed, Samiullah, Waseem Akram, Saran Bin Qamar, Rana Suhail Riaz, Bilal Mahmood, Umar Hamdi, Rizwan Ali, Zeeshan Bukhari, Mohsin Sabir, Faizan Sami, Khalil Ahmed, Bilal Qadir, Mubasshir Khan, Mohammad Atiq, Mohammad Azan Riaz, Sohail Anjum, Khizar Akhtar, Ayub Ali, Mohammad Sabir, Mohammad Naveed, Qamar Ali Bukhari, Haseeb Aslam, Asad Arshad, Mohammad Jawad, Waqas Nobat, Abdul Razzaq Khan, Mahad Ali, Hafiz Saeedul Hasan, Mohammad Aamir, Awais.

Published in Dawn, April 21st, 2017