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ISLAMABAD To put up a dazzling display in the upcoming Junior World Cup, the Pakistan Hockey Federation has initiated a month-long training camp at the Naseer Bundha Hockey ground here on Monday.
Twenty teams will compete in the Jr World Cup which will be played in Malaysia and Singapore from June 7 to 21.
'We know there are teams far better than Pakistan from Europe and elsewhere but the players have the potential to perform splendidly in the forthcoming tournament,' Khawaja Junaid, Pakistan's junior hockey team coach, told Dawn.
Under the coaching of the former Olympian, Khawaja Junaid, the team won back-to-back titles in Malaysia and Egypt.
He pointed out 'Winning two events in a row ahead of the World Cup is a good sign for us. The nation should not expect miracles from the junior team. However, our main focus is to bring in passion for the game and discipline among the junior players.'
Pakistan won the Jr World Cup only once in 1979 by defeating Germany. The German junior team later emerged as the most successful squad, having won the tournament four times —1982, 1985, 1989 and 1993.
When asked that Pakistan junior team had no experience of playing against stronger teams like Germany, Holland, Spain and Argentina, the defending Jr World Champion, he claimed 'We have match videos of these teams and we will develop a strategy to tackle them.'
Junaid added 'We will play some practice matches against New Zealand and Malaysia few days before start of the tournament.'
Twenty-four players, he said, had reported at the training camp. Junaid informed 'Eleven junior players are undergoing a training camp with the senior players and they will be available for the World Cup after the Asia Cup.'
Shafqat Rasool, Mohammad Zubair, Imran Shah, Fareed Ahmad, Abdul Haseem Khan and Waqas Sharif were some of the junior players attached with the senior hockey team.
When asked whether training camp was an alternative for competitive hockey, he asserted 'Training camps are no alternative for national competitions but we are trying to remove the mistakes identified during the last two tournaments.'
'The camp is running in two sessions, in the morning we do physical training while in the evening, we do match practice,' he concluded.
PROBABLES
Imran Shah, Imran Butt, Khurram Majeed, Kashif Ali, Mohammad Ateeq, Khalid Bhatti, Wasif Siddique, Mohammad Irfan, Zaheer Ahmad, Amir Shahzad, Fareed Ahmad, Mohammad Rashid, Usman Tariq, Mohsin Bilal, Shafqat Rasool, Mohammad Zubair, Inayatullah, Abdul Haseem Khan, Mohammad Taufeeq, Mohammad Yasir, Mohammad Rizwan, Shahbaz Ali, Omer Bhutta, Hassan Akhtar, Adeel Hussain, Sibtain Raza, Zeeshan Ali, Waqas Sharif, Waqas Akbar, Salman Loosy, Abbas Haider, Aqeel Bhatti, Waqas Butt and Adnan Javed.
