Pakistani junior hockey team will participate in Junior Asia Cup Muscat November

Pakistani junior hockey team will participate in Junior Asia Cup Muscat November ,

..(Asghar Ali Mubarak)……..

The Pakistani junior hockey team will participate in the Junior Asia Cup in Muscat in November this year.

The players will be selected from the 37th National Junior Hockey Championship National Junior Hockey Championship will be played from September 21 to October 10 at Lieutenant General Ashfaq Nadeem Hockey Stadium, Ayub Park Rawalpindi, players born after January 1, 2003 will be eligible to participate.

It should be remembered that in May 2023, Pakistan played the final of the Junior Hockey Asia Cup against traditional rival India, in which India won the title for the fourth time after defeating Pakistan.
This was Pakistan’s third consecutive failure in a final.

It should be remembered that the Junior Hockey Championship was last played in Lahore 5 years ago in 2019. The domestic structure of hockey in Pakistan is in dire straits.

There is no basic structure of hockey in the country at that time. Playing hockey in schools, colleges and various universities has also been stopped, in this case the young players of the 37th National Junior Hockey

Championship can make a place in the national hockey team of Pakistan. In the past, departmental hockey was played in all four provinces of the country at that time. Hockey talent came from different regions.

It should be noted that the declining trend of hockey in schools, colleges and clubs is one of the main reasons for the decline of this game.

Currently, the hockey clubs established in the country are a major source of access for players to the national team.
It should be remembered that on December 12, 2023, in the quarter-finals of the Junior World Hockey World Cup,

Spain defeated Pakistan by 2-4 goals and reached the semi-finals , the last quarter-final played in Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia, was between Pakistan and Spain.

In the 12th minute of the game, Abdul Hanan Shahid scored a field goal to give the lead to the team, which was maintained until the first half of the game.

However, the Spanish team made a brilliant comeback against the Pakistan team by scoring four consecutive goals in the third quarter of the game to turn their loss into victory.

Pakistan Hockey Federation President Tariq Bugti says that we are trying to restore the game at the local level, the Prime Minister has issued orders to restore the departmental hockey.

Which is yet to be officially started. As hockey activities are only in certain regions of the country, players from certain provinces are part of the national team.

Currently, there are no players from Balochistan and Sindh in the national hockey team, but they are trying to bring players from all four provinces of the country including Gilgit-Baltistan and Kashmir to the national team.

There are no players from Gilgit-Baltistan or Kashmir in the national team. There is no dearth of hockey talent in these two regions.

The only requirement is that children in every region should be provided with equal opportunities to play hockey.