KARACHI, 23 February 2007 — National hockey officials have managed to secure an away Test series against world champions Germany this summer in the lead up to December’s Champions Trophy in Lahore.
A Pakistan Hockey Federation official told Arab News that the Germany hockey officials have responded positively to PHF’s offer of a full-fledged Test series to be held sometime during July-August.
“The Germans have agreed to play a Test series this summer, the nitty-gritty of which would be finalized by the two parties in the coming days,” PHF secretary Akhtar-ul-Islam said.
Pakistan had written to Germany, Holland England for Test matches this summer after being snubbed by organizers of two international tournaments in Europe in August.
The organizers of the Hamburg Masters in Germany and the Rabo Trophy in Holland did not invite Pakistan or for that matter any Asian nation for the this year’s event. In the past, Pakistan had been regularly featuring in the two events and won the seven-nation Rabo Trophy in 2005 in Amsterdam.
“We have a thin international schedule this year and fear that lack of matches might leave our team short of proper warm-up before the Champions Trophy,” said Akhtar, a former Olympian.
Pakistan will host the 29th Champions Trophy at Lahore’s National Hockey Stadium from December 1-9. The hosts would be joined by Olympic champions Australia, Germany, Spain, Holland and Korea in the elite six-nation tournament.
“The Champions Trophy is the most important event for us in 2007 and we want to make best possible preparations for the event which would be played on our home soil,” said the PHF secretary.
Akhtar said that Pakistan would be playing at least three Test matches against Germany in July or August. “The details of the series would be finalized soon,” he said.
Pakistan are still awaiting a response from Holland and England for the proposed test matches. “We want to confirm at least eight matches during the tour of Europe this summer and expect that both Holland and England would respond positively to our proposal.”
Pakistan have not played any match since their disastrous Asian Games campaign in Doha last December where they finished a poor third position.
They would be competing in the seven-nation Sultan Azlan Shah Cup in the Malaysian city of Ipoh in April.
The PHF is yet to appoint a team management following the resignation of the previous set of officials led by former Olympian Shahnaz Sheikh in December.
It is expected that a new head coach would be appointed on Feb. 28 for a two-year term that would include preparing the national team for next August’s Olympic Games in Beijing.
“We announce the new team management soon which would start working in April,” said Akhtar.
Pakistan would set up a training camp in preparation for the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup early in April.
