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| February 26, 2003 | Wednesday | Zul Hijjah 24, 1423 |
Hanif slams selection for Ipoh contest
KARACHI, Feb 25: Former Pakistan hockey captain Hanif Khan on Tuesday slammed the selection of squad for Azlan Shah Cup, but advised to retain it until 2004 Athens Olympics.
“There are some technicalities which the selectors did not take into consideration while selecting the squad. But I must say whatever stuff we now have should be preserved until Olympics,” he said.
Pakistan announced an 18-member squad for the six-nation event in Ipoh, Malaysia, from March 22 to 31 to be participated by world champions Germany, South Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand and India.
Although three new faces — Shakeel Abbasi, Adnan Maqsood, and Mohammad Aqeel, have been included in the squad, ageing veterans like goalkeeper Ahmad Alam, Mohammad Nadeem, Mohammad Saqlain, and Tariq Imran, have been retained.
Hanif, also a former coach and a selector, was critical of the decision of recalling full-back Ali Raza who was preferred over Zeeshan Ashraf whom the Olympian rated as the best among the lot.
“Zeeshan is the best in terms of tackling, recovery at least after experienced Tariq. It is injustice that such a fine player has been ignored despite having lot of potential.
“I said in the past that Zeeshan is the best, I am still saying the same thing and will continue to say he is the best full-back we have got,” the former striker said.
The mercurial left-in of yesteryear suggested full-back Sohail Abbas, the penalty corner expert, should have been moved up as half-back to creat a space for Zeeshan.
“Sohail could have been included even as fourth half-back while Zeeshan should have been in the team,” Hanif said while recommending to attach Zeeshan at least with Pakistan Whites which is to tour Egypt to play an invitational next month.
Hanif said Pakistan had already lost a promising goalkeeper Salman Akbar who was out-of-sort because of being discarded after the 2002 World Cup in Kuala Lumpur.
“He (Salman) has tremendous talent which he proved during the six-nation tournament before the World Cup. He was named the best player of the final and the tournament. But instead of encouragement, he was axed and replaced by Ahmad Alam.
“Actually it should have been Ahmad who was supposed to be sidelined. But now Salman has lost the track and could not give his best as he is now dishearted. Same will happen to Zeeshan if he is neglected,” he said.
Hanif did not agree centre-forward Shakeel Abbasi should have been in the squad, saying apart from experienced spearhead Kashif Jawwad, Mudassir Ali or Rehan Butt could have been utilised.
“Shakeel is too young. There was no need to include him while there are utility players like Mudassir and Rehan who also play as centre-forward,” he said.
He contended Adnan’s inclusion was too early and would harm the youngster as he would wither before blossoming.
“What’s done is done. Pakistan should stop experimenting. We need to keep the present squad, having some seniors, intact until the Olympics if we want to qualify for the biggest sporting extravaganza. After that we will have two years to prepare the squad for 2006 World Cup,” he concluded.
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