KARACHI: The national hockey camp in preparation for the next month’s Commonwealth Games commenced at the Abdul Sattar Edhi Hockey Stadium on Thursday.

Thirty players out of the 32 probables invited by the Pakistan Hockey Federa­tion (PHF) reported on the opening day, officials said.

The Commonwealth Games are being held at Gold Coast, Australia, from April 5 to 14.

According to unconfirmed reports, Dutch coach Roelant Oltmans is due to arrive here on March six to take up his new assignment.

Meanwhile, according to chief selector Islahuddin Siddiqui, two-day trials to select the team for the event will be held on March 11 and 12.

He was in a fix when informed that the PHF had already sent 18 names to the organisers after the initial deadline of submission of names expired.

According to draws, the 13th ranked Pakistan is placed in pool B along with India, England, Malaysia and Wales. The pool A comprised Australia, New Zealand, Canada, South Africa and Scotland.

Pakistan plays its first match against Wales on April 5. The India-Pakistan clash takes place on April 7. Pakistan’s third match will be against England on April 8 while the greenshirts faces Malaysia in last pool match on April 11.

The classification mathes and semi-finals are slated for April 13 while curtain falls on the event the following day when playoff for the 3rd-4th positions and final takes place.

Published in Dawn, March 2nd, 2018