KARACHI, June 25: Pakistan have been omitted from the list of participants of a major international junior hockey tournament in Germany due to what a team official called a 'misunderstanding'.

Jahangir Butt, manager of the national junior team said that the organizers of the eight-nation junior hockey tournament to be held in August this year have replaced Pakistan with Poland after failing to get a reconfirmation about country’s entry in the event from the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF).

“We have recently learnt that Pakistan have been dropped from the list of participants by the organizers of the eight-nation tournament because they did not get a reconfirmation from the PHF about the national junior team's entry in the event,” said Jahangir.

The official said that the former PHF secretary Akhtarul Islam had talked to German hockey officials last year about participation in the eight-nation from Aug 6 to 12. He had told them the PHF would reconfirm Pakistan's entry in the event later. However, Akhtar resigned as PHF secretary and was later replaced by Khalid Mahmood who was not informed that the PHF had to reconfirm Pakistan's entry in the tournament.

“It happened because of a misunderstanding.

The PHF has now written to the German officials to re-enter Pakistan in the list of participants. “We are trying to get Pakistan in because it is the biggest junior tournament of the year and we want our team to participate in it,” said team manager.

The manager said major teams would be featuring in the tournament including hosts Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Australia, Korea and India. “It is a huge setback for us,” said the manager.—Agencies