Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan juniors kicked off their tour of Australia on a positive note as they defeated Randwik Hockey Club 6-0 in their match on Tuesday. According to a spokesman for the Pakistan Hockey Federation, the colts, who are scheduled to participate in the National Junior Championship of Australia, warmed up in style as Naveed Alam and Khairullah scored two goals each, while Abdullah Babar and Ghazanfar Ali added one apiece to their team’s winning cause.

The team has had several training sessions under coaches of some top Australian clubs lately, and head coach Kamran Ashraf feels the 6-0 win is a fruit of that labour.

“To keep up with other nations, the tips and tricks of modern hockey are valuable and this training helped us acquire that,” he said in a statement. Ashraf also reminded that even though their opponents were only a club side, their standard of hockey was pretty high, which made the win all the more impressive.

“The Australian players have played much more games than our players and have been training with the latest equipment, but even then our players were able to register an easy win over them; it is an achievement for us,” he said. “The players are not only improving their skills but also boosting their confidence by interacting with Australian players. The combination of Australia’s modern hockey and our traditional way of playing will make our players ready for any type of situation,” said Ashraf while predicting that by the end of the tour Pakistan will have many top class players.