LAHORE - A short training camp of Pakistan probables in preparation for Hockey World League will open at Hockey Club of Pakistan (HCP) Stadium here from Tuesday.
Hockey World Cup League will be held at Johar Bahru (Malaysia) from June 29 to July 7. In all, 28 probables have been invited to the training camp from which an 18-member Pakistan hockey squad will be picked. Eight top teams from Asia and Europe and drawn in two pools are taking part in the nine-day competition and top three teams will qualify for next year’s Hockey World Cup being staged in the Netherlands.
“This is an important event and we would be focussing all areas of the game with emphasis on the shortcomings of the team”, Pakistan team coach Olympian Hanif Khan said on the eve of start of the camp. Players would be assembling today evening and training starts from Tuesday morning, Hanif Khan said.
Pakistan is drawn in pool ‘B’ with England, South Africa and host Malaysia while Germany, Korea, Argentina and Team X is drawn in pool ‘A’.
Camp trainees are: Imran Shah, Imran Butt, M Imran, M Rizwan Senior, Fareed Ahmed, Rashid Mehmood, M Waqas, Shafqat Rasool, Abdul Haseem Khan, M Ateeq, Waseem Ahmad, M Kashif Ali, Shakeel Abbasi, M Irfan, M Salman Hussain, Talal Khalid, Syed Sibtain Raza, Aamir Shehzad, M Imran Junior, Muzammil Ishaq Bhatti, Kashif Ali, Arslan Qadir, M Zubair, Zohaib Ashraf, Ayub Ali, Yasir Shabbir, Waqas Akbar and Syed Abbas Haider Bilgrami.