Daily Times

KARACHI: The Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF), in its efforts to make the first Pakistan Hockey League (PHL) a success, has started working on the country’s national and domestic hockey structure. PHF director domestic and development Naveed Alam said Tuesday that the PHF had received security assurance from Chief of Army Staff Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa, adding that they were now concentrating on improving the quality of domestic players. “We want to have a good and talented pool of players for the drafting of the PHL and for that we have been working on club hockey for a year,” he said. “Now we have boosted that work by introducing school hockey.” Alam revealed how they intend for that plan to unfold. “Government schools will be asked to assemble hockey teams for inter-school competitions, while private schools have already begun doing so. In the past, we have seen certain schools producing legends of hockey and we believe that school hockey can once again give the national team the players it once did.”

Cricket’s Pakistan Super League (PSL) has helped the country unearth several young talents in just two years and Alam believes its hockey equivalent can reap similar rewards. “More players will come forward and do well in the national game,” he said. “Leagues give the players the opportunity to play with different international players and that helps performance and confidence.”

National team players are also being looked after. “Players have already been provided jobs in respective departments and the PHF will do whatever it can to have them play in foreign leagues around the world,” he said. “This will eventually help the federation create a bigger pool of players who have international experience, while also making professional hockey a much more attractive career to pursue for students.” The standard of coaching will also be improved, promised Alam. “More teams mean more professional coaches who have knowledge of the latest technologies and methods,” he said. “We will be organising courses to help with that.”

Published in Daily Times, August 2^nd 2017.