LAHORE, Oct 19 (APP)- National Inter Club competition has been revived after a decade and the event will be played from October 24 to December 2 across the country.
This was stated by Director Development and Domestic, Pakistan Hockey Federation, former hockey Olympian Naveed Alam here on Wednesday at a news conference at national hockey stadium.
“It is the result of the efforts of the present regime of the PHF that this event has been revived after a big gap of ten years and its prime objective is to tape new hockey talent,” he said.
Highlighting the salient features of the championship Naveed said as many as 144 district will be involved in it. The last such competition was organised way back in 2006.
“Going by the slogan, ‘Hockey for All’ this inter club event invites all the clubs, whether registered or unregistered,to participate,” he said.
Events will be organised by the respective District Hockey Associations, moving to Regions by the Regional HAs and then by the Provincial HAs- all under the umbrella of the PHF and the supervision of the Director Development and Domestic. The final national round would see four teams from Punjab, three each from Sind and KPK, two from Balochistan and one each from Islamabad, AJK, Gilgit- Baltistan and FATA.
“At the district level, district hockey associations under the secretary DHAs, will supervise the event. The respective Deputy Commissioners/District Coordination Officers and District Sports Officers will be fully involved. The estimated expenditure of Rs one million in each district would be borne primarily by the district administration through the allocated sports’ budget. PHF will facilitate mainly by providing the equipment,” he said.
Naveed said the response from the district administration has been very encouraging. Already, dormant grounds have been activated through the administration in many districts.
“This grass root nation wide event would go a long way in restoring hockey players’ confidence plus of course help identify raw talent. The genuine hockey clubs would come to the fore and fake clubs (existing only in papers) will be eliminated,” he asserted.
National disciplinary and scrutiny committee has already been instituted to attend to any complaint made at any level.
Efforts are afoot to televise all the provincial finals as well as the national final. Here, it is pertinent to mention that the provincial and national finals will be played on the league basis.
PHF’s will also try to find jobs for the best players seen in the competition.
Naveed Alam said, “I will address press conferences in all the provinces to highlight the importance of the inter club competition.”
To a question, he answered, “I agree that flaws and mistakes would surface in such a big exercise. But we will make our best efforts to deal with them in a just manner.”
