Except for goalkeeper Salman Akbar, all the players of Pakistan team which finished at the bottom in 12-nation competition in the World Cup held in New Delhi has been called to the training camp.
The training camp will commence at Hockey Club of Pakistan Stadium from April 22 and Azlan Shah Cup begins in Malaysia from May 7.
Camp probables were named by selection committee chief Hanif Khan. Other members of the committee Olympian Muhammad Usman, Mussidiq Hussain and Muhammad Arshad Chaudhry were also present on the occasion.
Hanif Khan said team was picked on the basis of performances in the National championship.
Former Olympic half-back Khawaja Junaid has been named as manager cum chief coach of the Pakistan team in place of sacked Olympian Shahid Ali Khan.
The list of probables include goal keepers: Nasir Ahmed, Imran Shah, Imran Butt; full backs: Zeeshan Ashraf, Sohail Abbas, Muhammad Imran, Wasif Siddiqui, Kashif Ali, Muhammad Ateeq; half-backs: Waseem Ahmed, Muhammad Irfan, Fareed Ahmed, M Rashid, Sajjad Anwar, M Tauseeq, Aamir Shehzad, Usman Tariq, Zaheer Ahmed, Zeeshan Ali; forwards: Rehan Butt, Shakeel Abbasi, Akhtar Ali, M Zubair, Haseem Khan, M Rizwan, Umer Bhutta, Waqas Sharif, Shafqat Rasool, M Bilal, Aqeel Hussain, Shehbaz Ali, Kashif Ali, and Abdul Qayyum.
Commenting on the list of probables, Secretary PHF, Asif Bajwa appreciated Selection Committee headed by Hanif Khan saying, “It is difficult to take a decision to select a player who has never have participated in the senior camp before. I see some players in the probables list who never appeared in the camp before so it shows that they (Selection Committee) have watched and observed National Hockey Championship closely to select these players”.
He was talking to The Financial Daily at Hockey Club of Pakistan here Sudnay.
“It is the prerogative of the selection committee to retain experienced players or not and since they have retained World Cup players so it is their decision. They have done what they thought better for the team,” Bajwa said.
He said that the format of the National Hockey Championship was excellent as it gives maximum exposure to all of the teams.
“Each team played nine matches during the tournament which gave them experience. In other formats a team would play three or four matches and would find a place in the final. So this format gives them more matches to play and therefore it is beneficial for the players,” Asif said.
He further said that Azlan Shah Cup, starting 6th May in Ipoh, Malaysia would give the team chance to point their weaknesses out ahead of Asian Games, to be held from 27th November in Guangzhou, China
No comments:
Post a Comment