Champions Trophy most toughest event in hockey world: Akhtar

Chief coach and manager of Pakistan hockey team, Chaudhary Akhtar Rasool has termed the Champions Trophy Tournament “the world most toughest hockey event” because of the participation of top eight teams and said finishing among top five will be a honourable result for the green shirts.
“In Olympics and World Cup weaker or low ranking teams also participate but Champions trophy has its own prestige in terms of having world’s top eight teams and if our team gets a place among top five it will be honourable and satisfactory result and a vital sign that our hockey in on the way of progress and improvement “,he told APP here on Monday after a training session of Pak hockey at Johar Town ground where it is prepare for Champions trophy hockey tournament being played in Melbourne from January first.
Akhtar supervised a rigorous three hour long training session along with coach, Ahmad Alam and imparted useful tip to players in a practice match. The national team is having two daily practice sessions, each of three hours to prepare for two tournaments being played in Australia, the first 9-a-side tournament in Perth commencing from December 22 followed by Champions trophy.
He said the team management is focusing on bringing improvement and to overcome gray areas noticed in Olympics.
“Almost six hours daily training aims at ensuring top physical fitness helping the players to get into rhythm before two tough assignments in Australia,” he said.
The team officials said in Olympic Pakistan team finished at number seven place and its 7-0 loss to Australia was the most shocking and disappointed for everyone. “ Now we will be playing Australia and we will be making all out efforts to blend the team into a combination capable of producing good results and we have set some certain goals which includes bringing improvement in teams present ranking.
“It’s time to show improvement and I am quite confident that we will be putting up fine performance to better our standing,” he said.
He said four more players including Wasim Ahmed, Farid Ahmed, Rizwan Sr and Mohammad Rashid will be joining the ongoing national training camp after fulfilling their commitments with foreign leagues in Europe and Australia. With the joining of these players in couple of days the total strength of the camp will rise to 27 as currently 24 players are under training.
“They will be good addition to the camp as they are in excellent form after performing in the league matches and we are confident that some of them will be the part of the national team for Champions Trophy,” said Akhtar Rasool.
The team official said 16-mnember squad will be named on November 13 and the team will continue practice at the same venue till the departure of the team on December 19. “ There are chances that we may re-call one or two more players for training to have an ample choice at the time of selection “,.he said. He said there would be no trails for selection and the selection will be made based on individual performance of players during the camp.