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LAHORE - As if refusal of foreign teams to play tournaments in Pakistan was not enough, The Netherlands have now said they won't play Pakistan at their home ground during the team's tour of Europe.

The Dutch team refusal came despite hectic efforts by the PHF and would dent Pakistan team's preparation for the Beijing Olympics. Playing a top ranking team like Holland could always help the greenshirts a great deal especially with Beijing Olympic round the corner. But the refusal has shocked hockey followers in Pakistan.

Reports from Holland suggest that they did not want to expose their Olympics team ahead of the Olympics and would rather prefer training their 20 players in different combination before entering Beijing.

And some sections suggested they the Dutch believed Pakistan was not a good tough enough to play for their preparations.

According to sources, the Dutch side declined to play due to the Champions Trophy event that will be held at Rotterdam. On the other hand, the PHF efforts to lure in some of the European and Asian teams for an international tournament here also not yielded any fruitful results as majority of the invited nations also refused to come on security grounds.

The PHF wanted to hold a tournament before the Olympics at home and for the purpose it sent invitation to several team of Europe and Asia but all of them refused to come over to Pakistan due to security reasons.

Pakistan hockey team would leave for Malaysia via Abu Dhabi on May 5 for Sultan Azlan Shah Cup at Ipoh. The team will leave for Europe tour to Germany on May 18. Pakistan team will play against Germany, France, Belgium and Ireland during the tour that will be concluded on June 16.

The PHF wanted to give exposure to the team before the Olympics at home but countries like Spain, Germany, Korea and even Japan, despite assurances, have refused Pakistan invitation. In all, the PHF invited six countries for a tournament but all of them refused.

An official of the PHF said that it will again contact the European and Asian teams after the team returns from the tour and try to hold a tournament here.

End.