July 22, 2003	Tuesday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 21, 1424

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KARACHI, July 21: Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF)’s double standards were exposed on Monday when it included Sohail Abbas and Waseem Ahmad in the Champions Trophy squad despite breach of discipline.

Full-back Sohail and left-half Waseem received call-ups, although the PHF inquiry committee had recommended one-year ban for them for playing in the German league despite being refused permission by the officials.

Instead, the pair, who escaped the real punishment, have been inducted after mild penalties that came in the shape of Rs0.1million fine which PHF considered to be “very harsh”.

“Ask the players who have been fined. Ask them how severe is the punishment. I think it is a very harsh penalty for both the players,” PHF president Gen Aziz Khan told a press briefing.

The PHF chief said the inquiry committee had given the federation two choices, either a one-year ban or fines after considering the players’ past performance.

“The first option was severe punishment, and the second was a lenient approach. Considering players’ positive attitude, press statements, and unconditional apologies, we opted for leniency for the sake of national interest,” the PHF official said.

Asked why same treatment was not given to Mohammad Nadeem, although he came back midway through the league in Germany and also tendered apology he replied: “There was difference between Nadeem and the other two players. Nadeem had more responsibility as he was the captain of the team.”

Interestingly, the general forgot that Nadeem, who violated the code of conduct, was not only re-inducted into the squad, but has also been installed as skipper replacing Ahmad Alam.

Likewise, Waseem has also regained vice-captaincy even though he was fined for indiscipline.

PHF had dropped Nadeem as a punishment from Australian tour in June despite striker’s apology and returning home a day before trials for the two three-nation tournaments.

Sohail and Waseem stayed in Germany even after the controversy erupted back home and came back only after a break in the league in Germany.

“There is a lot of difference between the circumstances. When Nadeem came back our team was going to Australia to play a three- nation contest.

“But this is Champions Trophy and we had to take a lenient decision in the national interest. PHF always allows players to go abroad and play if their plans do not clash with our calender,” Gen Aziz said.

The general did not agree that hockey was at its lowest ebb, saying it was merely going through a transition phase which he said was nothing new in Pakistan hockey’s history.

The PHF president surprized the journalists when he said it was not the first time that Pakistan returned without any medal from the Asian Games when team finished fourth in the Busan Games.

“It was not the first time that our team came without winning any medal at the Asian Games in Busan last year. We had performed badly also in the past at the Asiad,” said the general.

The fact, however, is Pakistan won seven Asian Games gold medals since 1958 Tokyo Asiad and it was the very first time in history that Pakistan were hurled out of medals bracket in Busan.

Gen Aziz said Ghazanfar Ali, who had reportedly gone to England to play in league, had been exonerated from charges of indiscipline after a reply from his department, PTCL. However, PHF chief did not elaborate about the reply from the PTCL.

The midfielder skipped the trials for Azlan Shah Cup earlier this year and it was reported that he was playing in English league or he had some domestic problems in England.

While right-in Sameer Hussain staged his comeback after being discarded after a pre-World Cup tournament last year, unknown Mohammad Asim of National Bank was a surprize entry into the squad which is also for the Asia Cup in September in Malaysia.

Surprisingly, neither Asim was in the list of probables announced on June 10 by the PHF for the training camp nor did he play in the recent friendly home series against China.

Among the four players axed are full-back Tariq Imran, midfielder Imran Rasool, and strikers Shakeel Abbasi and Aqeel Khan, who all belong to PTCL.

Like the opening day, selector Saeed Khan was missing from the trials, while another selector Saleem Nazim, who was absent on Sunday, watched the sessions apart from other selectors.

Squad:

Goalkeepers: Ahmad Alam, Salman Akbar.

Full-backs: Sohail Abbas, Ali Raza, Zeeshan Ashraf.

Half-backs: Ghazanfar Ali, Mohammad Saqlain, Dilawar Hussain, Waseem Ahmad (vice-captain), Adnan Maqsood.

Forwards: Rehan Butt, Mudassir Ali Khan, Kashif Jawwad, Mohammad Nadeem (captain), Shabbir Hussain, Sameer Hussain, Khalid Saleem, Mohammad Asim.

Standbys: Nasir Ahmad, Amir Saleem, Imtiaz Ahmad, Rana Asif, Tariq Imran, Imran Rasool, Sumair Saleem, Shahid Waseem, Zahid Sheikh, Mukhtar Ahmad, Aqeel Khan, Mudassir Jr, Shakeel Abbasi, Zeeshan Ali.

Officials: Abdul Rashid Jr (manager), Tahir Zaman (coach), Shahid Ali Khan (assistant coach).