ISLAMABAD: An academy for both male and female hockey players will be opened in January at the Shahnaz Sheikh Hockey Stadium in Rawalpindi in collaboration with the Punjab Sports Board.

Talking to APP, former Olympian Shahnaz Sheikh said he had met Sports Board of Punjab officials in order to finalise talks about the academy.

He said the Punjab government, PML-N leader Hanif Abbasi and the Sports Board of Punjab have been a great help in establishing the hockey stadium.

He thanked the Punjab government, the Sports Board of Pakistan and Hanif Abbasi for their efforts to encourage and promote the game of hockey in Rawalpindi.

The astro-turf has been laid at the Hockey Stadium and hopefully a tournament between ex-Olympians will be organised soon.

It may be mentioned here that the whole stadium project is worth Rs149 million. The stadium will have a capacity of 50,000 spectators.

Published in Dawn, December 23rd, 2017