Hockey: Probables begin training for Australia tour

Hockey players to overcome weaknesses with extensive drills.

KARACHI: Pakistan hockey probables began an extensive training session in Islamabad for back-to-back tournaments in Australia with focus on overcoming flaws that hurt the team badly in the Asian Champions Trophy last month.   

The players started rigorous drills albeit without head coach Michel Van Den Heuvel who is expected to join the preliminary squad today.

The selection committee had announced 25 probables for the tour, a list which also included penalty-corner specialist Sohail Abbas and experienced goal-keeper Salman Akbar who were dropped for the Asian Champions Trophy.

The Greenshirts play a tri-nation event and the International Super Hockey Series from October 20 to November 3 in Perth.

While all the probables will attend the camp, Akbar, who is playing in the Netherlands league, has been exempted from it by the Pakistan Hockey Federation  (PHF).

Focus on penalty-corner conversion

Pakistan team manager Khwaja Junaid said that the camp will focus on improving skills in goal execution and penalty-corner conversion.

“These departments need improvement,” Junaid told The Express Tribune. “We’ve arranged special sessions for bringing improvement in this regard.”

Pakistan lost the Asian Champions Trophy final to India in which the team missed eight penalty corners.   The manager hoped that the return of penalty-corner expert Abbas will improve the ratio of conversion.

Junaid also said that the national selection committee is expected to name the final squad for the tour next week.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 3^rd, 2011.