A two-member delegation of Pakistan Hockey Federation comprising its President, Qasim Zia and Secretary, Mohammad Asif Bajwa left here on Tuesday for Malaysia to attend FIX executive board meeting being held in Kula Lumpur from November first to four.
“We are going to attend a number of meetings and the most important among them is election of FIH President, and two executive board members,” said Bajwa here.
He said he will be meeting with the authorities of the Hockey India to finalize the details of bilateral hockey series between the two countries. “Now the stage comes to finalize all the important matters relating to the holding of the series in March-April next year and we are confident to make an announcement in this regard after the meeting,” said the PHF Secretary.
He said the more Pak-India play on regular basis the better it would be for the cause of hockey in sub-continent. He said Pakistan will be presenting its recommendations during FIH marketing committee meeting as asked by the games ruling body. “We have given our input on having twenty teams in the next World Cup as FIH asked our opinion in this regard,” he said.
He further said: “The idea of having maximum teams in the Cup is to make it a big event and to ensure the participation of those upcoming teams which are making gradual progress in the game in different parts of the game.” He said next year is very important for Pak hockey as its team will be playing the qualifying rounds for the World Cup besides appearing in the Asia Cup. To a question, Pakistan could not organize the international hockey events allocated to it due to security concerns and the most recent example was the postponement of the indoor Asia Cup at Islamabad. “PHF is very concerned on this issue and it is making hectic efforts for the return of international hockey to Pakistan and whenever such an opportunity comes to host an international event in Pakistan it is keen to stage it but unfortunately foreign teams are reluctant to visit to Pakistan and we are confident that international events will do take place as the situation is improving with each passing day,” he added.
