Pak Jr Hockey Team Has Five Dar Academy Players

LAHORE, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 19th Apr, 2017 ) - Pakistan's Junior Hockey team currently on a tour of Australia has five Dar hockey academy players (DHA) which speak volume of DHA efforts to serve as a pipe line to produce players for national hockey.

Pak team is participating in the Australian National hockey team being played in Hobart, Tasmania, a first ever such tour arranged by the Pakistan Hockey federation to groom the players by exposing them to competitive hockey.

After taking part in the championship the green shirts will feature in the Australia hockey league by representing different clubs and in process will stay in Australia for around four months. DHA boys in the side are Waqar Younis (goal keeper), Adeel Latif, Awais Arshad, Ali Aziz and Hammad Anjum.

Two other academy players, Asif Haneef and Zulqarnain are among the standbys. For four of the five boys, Waqar, Adeel, Awais and Ali Aziz,it will be their second tour in the national colours. They were members of Pakistan's bronze medal winning squad at the 2016 Boys Under 18 Asia Cup in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

For Hammad Anjum, it is the first international outing.

All the boys have benefited from Dar Hockey Academy's training tours abroad in recent years. Adeel Latif has been to Europe with the DHA as many as three times..

Waqar and Ali Aziz toured Netherlands in 2015, and Malaysia in 2016. While Awais Arshad and Hammad visited Malaysia in 2016 with the Dar HA. "It is good to see a good of number of my academy players playing in National junior team in Australia and it is a matter of great satisfaction that we are ably serving our national sport ",said Taquir Dar, head of the DHA while talking to APP here on Wednesday.

He said the academy is a mission for him to produce finished products for Pakistan hockey. "The inclusion of our players in the national side is a big inspiration for us and we will work much harder to be a helping hand for our hockey to revive its sagging fortune ",he asserted.

He wished the Pak jr team best of luck and greeted the team players for winning the opening match of the Australian national hockey championship. " Well done boys, keep the good work up ",he said.