LAHORE, Sept 23 (APP): Pakistan Hockey Federation has devised a comprehensive plan ‘Vision 2020’ to revive and rejuvenate hockey in the country.
The plan would be implemented from next month aims at the activation of grass root hockey at the club and school level, said a spokesman of PHF here on Friday.
“Clubs are a very important segment and constitute the basic unit of the edifice of Pakistan hockey,” he said.
In the past, Pakistan’s hockey successes owed a lot to the clubs.
The domestic club scene was very active and competitive.
They played the role of nursery in producing quality players and there was no shortage of talent available to the national sides, he added.
The PHF desires to recreate the same old club culture.
Hence, the Inter Club Competitions are being organized at all
the levels and they will be a permanent fixture of the PHF’s annual calendar.
It would start from the Inter Club ‘District’ Hockey Championships to be followed by the Inter Club at Divisional level and then the Provincial.
It would culminate at the National level where the top
clubs emerging from the provincial competition would participate for the title of the National Club Champion, who would also be sent to some competition outside Pakistan.
“The whole event will be organized under the patronage of the PHF as per the rules and regulations of the game. PHF Director Development and Domestic, World Cup winner, Naveed Alam will be the chief Coordinator and would monitor the event,” said the spokesman.
The Provincial Hockey Associations have been told to organise the Preliminary Rounds of the Inter Club Championship at the district and divisional level in their respective provinces as per the following schedule:
-Interclub at District level: Oct 24 Oct- Oct 31 -Interclub at Divisional level: Nov 3- No v 10 -Interclub at Provincial level: Nov 14 –Nov 21 -Interclub at National level: Nov 24- Dec 2
Format at the National Level shall be as following:
From KPK- Top three clubs Punjab- Top four clubs Baluchistan- Top two clubs Sindh- Top three clubs Islamabad- Top one club AJK- Top one club Gilgit & Baltistan- Top one club FATA- Top one club
The prime objective of the entire exercise to identify new talent and to broaden the base of the game by having an increased pool of players for every position to infuse fresh blood in the national teams besides finding timey replacements for outgoing player, he added.