Two Pak hockey players arrive in Bangalore for WSH

MUMBAI: Amid reports that the multi-million dollar World Series Hockey could be postponed, two Pakistan players – full back Zeeshan Ashraf and half back Adnan Maqsood – arrived at Bangalore on Saturday to join the camp of their franchise outfit, Karnataka Lions.

The Pakistan duo is to begin the preparations through a high-intensity camp being conducted for all members of the team and the camp has been specially designed by the coaches keeping in mind individual skill sets that can be synced with the team strategy, a media release from WSH said on Saturday.

The two Pakistani players said they were happy to be in the country for eight-team WSH which is scheduled from December 17 to January 22, 2012.

“I’m delighted to be in India for World Series Hockey. It’s a great initiative for our sport and it’s going to be fun to play with the mix of international superstars and Indian players. The training camp will help us greatly in coming up with a winning strategy for the team,” Adnan said.

“It’s great to be back in India. We have a strong team and will be looking use the training camp to bond with each other. I can’t wait to get started,” added Zeeshan.

The tournament, a joint initiative by the Indian Hockey Federation and Nimbus Sport, has been under a cloud after a dozen Indian players pulled out of the event as it clashed with the proposed national camp for the Pre-Olympic qualifiers.

The Pre-Olympic qualifiers are to be held in Delhi’s Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium from February 18-26. India need to win the tournament to re-enter the Olympic men’s hockey fold after failing to qualify for the 2008 Beijing Games.