LAHORE, Nov 30 The 23-member national hockey contingent comprising 18 players and five officials left here for Salta, Argentina, on Monday, to compete in the Champions Challenge-I Hockey Tournament there.

The team boarded a flight to Dubai from where it will take a connecting flight to Brazil before reaching its final destination — Salta, Argentina.

The tournament to be held from Dec 6 to 13 features eight teams that have been divided into two pools. Pakistan is in Pool 'B' along with hosts Argentina, South Africa and Canada while Pool 'A' comprises Belgium, China, India and New Zealand.

The team will play its first match against Canada on Dec 6, followed by Argentina on the 8th and South Africa on the 10th.

The classification and semi-final matches will be played on the 12th followed by the final on the 13th.

The winner of the tournament will qualify to play in next year's Champions trophy.

Speaking to Dawn before leaving, chief coach Shahid Ali Khan said that the fitness level of the boys had improved and they were eager to perform well in the competition to enable Pakistan to play in the next edition of the Champions Trophy.

“Having qualified for the 2010 World Cup, the national team is now focusing on this tournament in order to qualify for yet another high-profile international tourney.

“Our main weapon is penalty-corner specialist Sohail Abbas. He has also tested several new drills during training camp and would deliver, hopefully,” he added.

Meanwhile, Sohail himself said that he was not under any sort of pressure and was hoping to carry out another key performance such as the one he gave in the World Cup qualifiers in Lille, France, recently.

Pakistan captain Zeeshan Ashraf, too, was hopeful of victory and said that their shortcomings in the deep defence area had also been overcome to a large extent.

“It is going to be a tough competition,” he admitted, “But it will also benefit the side in honing their skills as well as access their opponents' real strength as many of the teams playing here will also be featuring in the World Cup in India next year.”

Squad

Goalkeepers Salman Akbar and Nasir Ahmad.

Fullbacks Zeeshan Ashraf (captain), Sohail Abbas and Mohammad Imran.

Halfbacks Waseem Ahmad, Sajjad Anwar, Fareed Ahmad, Mohammad Irfan and Mohammad Rashid.

Forwards Shakeel Abbasi, Mohammad Zubair, Mohammad Zubair, Rehan Butt, Abdul Haseem Khan, Akhtar Ali, Omer Bhutta and Mohammad Rizwan.

Officials Shahid Ali Khan (chief coach), Shafqat Malik (assistant coach), Asif Bajwa (manager), Faiz-ur-Rehman (physiotherapist) and Nadeem Lodhi (video analyst).