Pakistan Envoy Seeks Collaboration with Nigeria on Hockey, Football
- September 19, 2013, 7:27 pm
- Sports News
- 88 Views
ABUJA Sept 19 (Online): The Pakistan High Commissioner to Nigeria, Lt. Gen. Muhammad Ashraf Saleem, has called for closer collaboration between his country and Nigeria specifically in the development of hockey in Nigeria and football in Pakistan.
The envoy made the disclosure in an interview with THISDAY. He stated that apart from economic ties in the real sector, both nations can render technical sports assistance to each other specifically in hockey and football. Saleem said that Pakistan as world champion in hockey can help Nigeria revive her hockey and cricket teams. He added that he was aware that Nigeria in the past used to have a good national hockey team, adding: “Now I don’t see that anymore.â€
While commending Nigeria for being champion of African football, Saleem said there is however the need to diversify to sports like cricket and hockey for several reasons.“The two countries can cooperate and collaborate in other sports. In Pakistan, a lot of people play football on every street, village and city, but unfortunately we do not have a good national football team like Nigeria. To this end we can get your coaches, to help us with some form of technical assistance in advancing our football, while Pakistan can also help Nigeria with technical assistance in hockey and cricket,†stressed the envoy.
He advised also that Nigerian businessmen can also directly do business in sports equipment from Pakistan.
In Pakistan, he said: “I may not be wrong if I say that almost 90 percent of the surgical goods in the world are made in Pakistan and exported with different brands like the ones you find in Nigeria, although may carry a different brand. They are actually produced in Pakistan like Nike, Adidas get their equipment produced in Pakistan and they just put their brand on them. “Instead of Nigerian businessmen importing those things from outside, let them come to Pakistan and get these directly.
As world champions in both cricket and hockey, Saleem said: “Our team is presently playing test (cricket) matches in Zimbabwe. Incidentally the Pakistani team has won all the matches so far. In hockey, we are the Olympic champion because cricket is not an Olympic event, but in hockey we are world champion.â€
He restated the interests of Pakistan in helping in training Nigerian coaches in both hockey and cricket.
“We can also collaborate in terms of support sports. Particularly we can help in the area of training of hockey and cricket so that cricket can be revived in Nigeria,†he noted.
Apart from being champions in cricket and hockey, Pakistani players like Jehangir Khan and Jansher Khan were once world championships in squash. Also, we are large exporter of sports goods. Most of the World Cup finals were played with footballs made in Pakistan. Every day, Pakistan exports 50,000 footballs to the leagues of the world,†concludes the Pakistani envoy in Nigeria.
