LAHORE: The Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) has finally received an invitation from its Malaysian counterpart to play in the 29th edition of the Azlan Shah Cup hockey tournament taking place next year.

The 2020 edition will be held from April 11 to 18 in Ipoh.

Pakistan, the former three-time winners of the event, pulled out its team from the edition held in 2018, despite confirming the participation. Later, the Malaysian Hockey Confederation (MHC) did not offer the invitation to the PHF for the 2019 event.

According to a PHF press release, it has accepted the invitation from the MHC.

After recent changes in the format of the FIH ranking points, Pakistan need a good number of matches to improve their ranking. Now according to recent changes in the ranking system, a country will get points for playing every match of the tournament and on bilateral basis, too.

Pakistan’s ranking has slipped to a dismal 17th from 13th just due to PHF’s wrong decision of not fielding the national team in the FIH Pro League, which was held from January to June this year.

The PHF, despite its confirmation to participate, failed to send Pakistan team to the said league due to what the federation described paucity of funds. As a result, the FIH imposed a cash penalty of $100,000 on the PHF.

Published in Dawn, December 19th, 2019