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LAHORE: The signs of international hockey returning to Pakistan are bright as Egypt has shown interest in staging a bilateral series against Pakistan.
“With the grace of God, the PHF has managed to convince Egypt to play a bilateral series.
“As per the plan, Pakistan will visit Egypt in February first and then they will send their team here in March,” Pakistan Hockey Federation secretary Asif Bajwa told reporters after attending PHF Executive Board and Congress meetings here on Tuesday.
“The visit of the Egyptian team will open doors for other nations to send their teams to Pakistan,” the secretary added.
He, however, said he was not in a position to divulge the plan of the series at the moment.
“We are in the process of deciding the number of matches in this series. We will announce the itinerary as soon as it is finalised,” he said.
He said the Executive Board approved busy calendar of activities for the next year, including participation in four-nation tournament in Ireland, tour to Scotland, another four-nation tourney, Test matches against Holland, Spain and Germany, Azlan Shah Cup and Champions Trophy.
He said Executive Board and Congress had empowered the PHF to take any decision regarding reshuffling the managements of national senior and junior teams and the selection committee.
“The two houses have allowed the PHF president to take any suitable decision about the managerial post of the national and junior teams, besides the selection committee,” he said.
He said the meeting had accepted the pardon appeal of the former Pakistan captain, Mansoor Ahmed, and lifted the ban on him, which was imposed in 2009, for levelling allegations on the current PHF management of being involved in human trafficking.
To a question he said the house also passed the annual budget, which showed a deficit of Rs300 million.
“The PHF passed a budget of Rs500 million, but we have the resources of Rs200 million only. We will try to ask the prime minister to help us in covering the loss,” he said.
The secretary said though the PHF had set eyes on the 2012 London Olympics, their real target was the World Cup in 2014.
“We set the realistic target of a gold medal in the last Asian Games and achieved it. We don’t want to raise hollow slogans and thus aiming to get a place on the podium in the Olympics and gold medal in the World Cup.”
