KARACHI, Dec 14: The Hockey Club of Pakistan (HCP) Stadium is in quite a bad shape ahead of the two hockey test matches against the visiting Chinese team, scheduled to be played next week.

The Chinese are the first international hockey side to visit Pakistan for international matches in nearly seven years and will play four matches on the tour including two in Karachi and one each in Faisalabad and Lahore.

The HCP, once rated as one of the finest hockey stadiums in the country, is far from ready to stage the China tests. To begin with, the goal posts and the net in miserable condition while a huge quantity of dust can be seen on the astro-turf. Besides this, lot ofbroken chairs in the stands, jury area, media centre and general add to the shabby state of the ground.

While the HCP staff have started the repair work including painting and repairing of some of the stands, they are unlikely to complete the job before the commencement of China series.

“We are launching day/night shifts to put the stadium in shape for the test matches on Dec 21-22,” Director HCP, Olympian Iftikhar Syed said on Wednesday. He hoped that the stadium will be ready before Chinese team’s first training session on Dec 20.—APP