Pak jr hockey team leaves for Australia

LAHORE, Apr 14 (APP): Pakistan’s national junior hockey
team left for Australia here on Friday from to take part in
competitive Australian National Junior Championships.
The 2017 Women’s and Men’s Australian Junior Championships
will take place in Hobart, Tasmania, from April 19-29.
In what would be a first of its’ kind, after the junior
championship, the boys would stay in Australia for around four
months. They will appear in Australia’s hockey league for
various club teams.
Team’s head coach Kamran Ashraf told APP before the departure
of the team, “Australia are the reigning World Champions. The
boys would learn a lot playing in Australia’s domestic circuit.They
will also be attending training sessions conducted by famed
Australian coaches”.
He said the tour is of greater significance in terms of
imparting high profile experience to the young players. “it is
going to be the first ever experience that our junior team will
be staying that long in Australia and playing in their national
events”, he said “PHF has taken this good decision in the larger
interest of hockey and to strengthen the base of the game”.
The tour will help the players to learn finer points of the
game and add to their experience, he said.
He termed the junior team the future of pakistan hockey and
said that day is not far when majority of the junior teams players
will be a part of the senior national team.
Bahawalpur’s Junaid Manzoor is the captain of Pakistan’s junior
team and Lahore’s Moin Shakeel is his deputy.
Following are the other members of the team, Waqar Younis,
Amjad Ali Khan, Rizwan Ali,Adeel Latif,Akmal Hussain, Khair ullah
shah, Ahmad Nadeem, Ali Aziz, Shahzaib Khan, Naveed Alam,Ghazanfar
Ali ,Zakir ullah, Abdullah Babar, Umair Sattar, Ali Raza, Afraz,
Hammad Anjum,Waqar Ali and Awais Arshad.