KARACHI: The first phase of Pakistan junior hockey team’s training camp in Lahore at DHA hockey academy ended on Monday.
The training camp was set up for the preparation of Junior Asia Hockey Cup 2023. The camp will resume just after Eid ul Fitr, the team management informed 'The News'.
The Junior Asia Hockey Cup will be played from May 23 to June 1 in Salalah, Oman.
Sources said that the second phase would have 28-30 boys and it would be continued till the departure of the team for the Asia Cup.
PHF's efforts for arranging international matches series with Malaysia, South Korea or Japan failed because these countries are busy training and have no time to participate in test series with Pakistan.
Sources in the PHF said that they have an alternative plan for providing match practice to the juniors. They said that during the training camp in Lahore, at least nine practice matches would be arranged against Pakistan senior team players and strong departmental teams. Sources said that the details of theses matches would be announced soon.
Sources confirmed that after reaching Oman, Pakistan junior team would play a few practice matches against other participating teams before the event begins.
The teams have been divided into two pools. Pool A comprises Pakistan, India, Japan, Thailand, and Chinese Taipei, while Pool B consists of Korea, Malaysia, Oman, Bangladesh and Uzbekistan. Pakistan will play their first match against Chinese Taipei on May 23, Thailand on May 24, India on May 27 and Japan on May 29.
Syed Intikhab Ali Syed Intikhab Ali is a reporter for The News