November 26, 2003	Wednesday	Shawwal 1, 1424

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LAHORE, Nov 25: Goalkeeper Jaffar Khan on Tuesday was named captain of the 20-member Pakistan football team to face Kyrgyzstan in the World Cup pre-qualifying round to be played on home and away basis on Nov 29 and Dec 3.

Jaffar has replaced Haroon Yousaf, who led Pakistan in the SAF Gold Cup championship held in Bangladesh earlier this year. Defender Naseer Ahmed was appointed vice-captain.

Abdul Ghani is the second goalkeeper of the team.

Pakistan play Kyrgyzstan at Karachi on Saturday, while for the away match on Dec 3 they travel with the Kyrgyzstan team to Bishkek in their chartered plane.

Kyrgyzstan wanted to play their home match also in Pakistan due to icy weather conditions in their homeland. But Asian Football Confederation (AFC) did not allow the two countries to make mutual change.

Meanwhile, Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) has decided to continue the training camp uninterrupted at Karachi, without even a break for Eid-ul-Fitr holidays.

Squad:Jaffar Khan (captain), Tanveer Ahmed, Muhammad Tariq, Abdul Qadeer, Sajjad Hussain, Adeel Ahmed, Arif Masih, Shahid, Sajjad Haider, Arif Mehmood, Abdul Ghani (goalkeeper), Naseer Ahmed, Shahid Nadeem, Zahid Hameed, Jamshed Anwar, Abdul Ghaffar, Mehmood Khan, Muhammad Pervaiz, Shahid Ahmed, Muhammad Zahid.

Fifteen players from the above list will travel to Kyrgyzstan to play the away match on Dec 3.