LAHORE, Jan 25 The Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) has decided to request the federal government to send a high-level delegation to India to assess the security arrangements before the 2010-World Cup.

“Though the International Hockey Federation (FIH) president has assured security and Indian visa to the PHF for the mega event, the federation decided to request the government to send a high level security delegation, to India to personally have the idea about the security measures taken by the Indian authorities,” PHF secretary Asif Bajwa told reporters here on Monday.

After the Indian Premier League (IPL) did not hire any Pakistani players for its third edition, starting from March 13, there is a demand from various Pakistani not to send the hockey team to India to participate in Feb 29-March 13 World Cup.

“There is lot of difference between the status of IPL and the World Cup. Participation in the FIH event is our commitment, while the IPL is a commercial league,” Bajwa said.

He said the PHF would follow the instruction of the federal government about the participation in the mega event. It may be mentioned here that the federal sports minister Aijaz Hussain Jakhrani had already given NOC to the PHF through media. But despite getting this, the PHF's decision of requesting the federal government to send security delegation to India has many questions to be answered.

Bajwa, a former Olympian and who is also manager of the national team said the opening match of the World Cup against India was bigger than the World Cup as around one billion spectators would be watching it and praying for their favorite team.

“We will do our all best to win that one to make our nation happy,” Bajwa said.

The secretary refused to make any predictions about Pakistan's show in the World Cup, saying that in the last Olympic Games Pakistan finished at 8th position and with that kind of poor rankings, no one could predict victory in a mega event like the World Cup.

He said the last phase training camp was being started in Lahore from Tuesday.

“The team management has to improve the skill and stamina of the team for the last 10 minutes game of the match as we lost various matches from wining position due to poor play in the last minutes of play,” he said.