LAHORE: Canada will visit Pakistan from Feb 8 to 21 to play a bilateral series against the hosts in the capital, the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) announced on Saturday.

“The series will help Pakistan in restoring the international hockey activities in the country,” the PHF said in a media statement, adding that the schedule of the matches will be finalised later.

While the arrival of any foreign team can be termed a good omen for Pakistan hockey, it can be noticed that the PHF has confined most of its game-related activities to Islamabad for several years. While foreign teams seldom have visited Pakistan in the last decade, Lahore and Karachi, the two major hockey centres of the country, were not given the chance of hosting any international match during this period. Recently, South Korea’s team played all their matches against Pakistan in Islamabad.

The National Stadium, Lahore, the world’s biggest hockey stadium, has not organised any international match for the last many years and the same is the case with Karachi’s Abdul Sattar Edhi Hockey Stadium.

Published in Dawn, October 18th, 2026