Tour of China a test of junior players abilities: Naveed
Bureau Report

LAHORE—National hockey team coach, former Olympian, Naveed Alam said the tour of China will be a test of abilities of junior players and a step forward to build the team for Olympics.
“This tour is of great significance, to expose the young players to fast paced hockey and to achieve our objectives step by step for grooming the team for Olympics “,said Naveed Alam while taking to APP here on Monday. Four junior players have been included in the 18-member team squad for the tour of China in which the team will play five test matches. The junior players are junior hockey team captain and forward, Shafqat Rasool, full back Muhammad Atif,left half Fareed Ahmad and centre half Waqas Zafar.
Naveed said the tour of China is the first step towards preparing the team for Olympics as efforts have been made to blend experience with youth by calling back former captains Muhammad Saqlain and Rehan Butt in the team. “ If we look at the composition of the team it portrays our endeavour to gel experience with youth and we are confident to gain set results in the coming tour”,he said. “I believe when Saqlain and Rehan will be there , it will be a great inspiration for young players and there will be a competitive run between senior and junior players which will lift the performance of the team “,he observed.
He said Pak team has ample time prior to its participation in the Olympics and in between during the six months time it will play around thirty international matches at various countries. “I think after that much practice and preparations there should not be any excuse for not producing results in Olympics”, he added.
Naveed, one of finest defence player in Pakistan hockey, said team management under the vast experience of chief coach and manager former olympian Khawaj Zakuddin is taking measures to help improve the performance of the team. “ It is a reality that our performance in recent past was bad but we must learn a lesson from our backward trend to launch collective efforts for improvement”,he said.
The former Olympian said he was not disappointed with the future of hockey in Pakistan saying there is still a chance to make a come back and reclaim the top slot. “If we continue to have a negative impression in our minds about our hockey then we can never improve, the only way to march ahead is to think positive by motivating the young players and to explore their talent in a more professional way “,he asserted.
Naveed said playing high flying Chinese team will be a challenging task and Pak team desperately needs a victory to break the winning jinx of their opponents who have beaten them twice in international meetings, first in the Doha Asian Games third place match then in Asia Cup match in India. “China is fast coming up in international hockey and if some one calls them underdogs it is an unfair judgment because they have produced stunning results against teams like Pakistan and India”,he stressed.
The team official was optimistic that players will go all out for a victory in the tour to regain edge over China and to warp up the first part of their Olympics preparations on a morale building note.