National camp for Champions Trophy next month: PHF
Bureau Report

LAHORE—National hockey training camp for the build up of team to take part in the Champions Trophy hockey tournament will commence here from November 8 at National stadium.
“The camp will be attended by nearly 35 players who have participated in different national senior and junior tournament besides hockey league”, said Brig (Retd) Musarrat Ullah Khan, Secretary, Pakistan Hockey Federation while talking to newsmen on Friday.
India will host the Champions Trophy in Chennai from December 10-18.
“It is a very serious tournament for us and we will be taking all out measures to train our side for attaining desired results”, he said.
Answering a question, he said, victory in a 8-nation tournament in Holland in August does not mean that everything has been achieved.
“We have still to go a long way and success should not be taken in a way which could hamper our prospects in the Champions Trophy”, he said.
PHF official said more efforts and hard work is needed to further uplift the performance of the national team which has started showing encouraging results after a long gap.
“Our focus should be on eradicating miner mistakes and to prepare the players under a plan to overcome pressure situations in which in the past usually they flattered and such attitude ruined our chances in the important matches”, he said.
Musarrat said objective of inviting nearly 35 players is to have a broader look on selection creating ample opportunity for each player to put up his best.
Pakistan took the bronze at home in the last Champions Trophy at Lahore, beating arch-rivals India in a classification tie.
“We must show improvement as we have been trying hard to enhance the performance graph of our side and yet we to have overcome tough European rivals in the event because in the last Champions Trophy we could not show good performance against them”, he said.
Saeed Khan will be the camp commandant and former Olympian Asif Bajwa assisted by Rana Mujahid and few other players will conduct the camp.
Answering another question, PHF official said, efforts would be made to blend youth with experience in the camp to form a side which is capable of producing encouraging results to keep the winning run of the team intact.