PESHAWAR: Pakistan’s national women team left for Bangkok, Thailand, on Wed­nesday to participate in the Asian Hockey Federation Cup.

Promising Hina Kanwal is the captain of the squad and Rizwana Yasmin is the vice-captain.

Saeed Khan, who coached Pakistan’s World Cup winning team of 1994, is the manager and chief coach while the former national captain Usman Sheikh is the coach.

The team went through a month-long training camp at the National Hockey Stadium, Lahore.

During the last days, the team also played some practice matches against the Dar Hockey Academy.

Coach Usman is hopeful that Pakistan will try hard, “We all know that the national women team has been formed after a gap of more than three years. During this period, there was also very little domestic activity. So it will be difficult to compete with the team active on the international circuit all this time.”

The two semi-finals will be played on Oct 8 and the final is scheduled for Oct 9.

The top two teams of the AHF Cup would qualify for the Women’s Asia Cup, says a PHF media release issued here on Wednesday.

Schedule of Pakistan’s pool matches:

Oct 1: Pakistan vs Thailand

Oct 3: Pakistan vs Uzbekistan

Oct 5: Pakistan vs Chinese-Taipei.

Published in Dawn September 29th, 2016