ISLAMABAD, July 7: The squash managers on Wednesday named players who will represent Pakistan in the team and individual events at next month's World Junior Championship in Islamabad.

Following a lengthy selection procedure, Amir Atlas and Shah Nawaz were chosen for the individual event while Khalid Atlas, Farhan Mahboob, Yasir Butt and Basit Ashfaq form the party for the team competition of the Aug 17 to 28 championship.

Secretary of the Pakistan Squash Federation (PSF), Wng Cdr Sajid Waheed told Dawn that the selected players were the best available and would give a good account of themselves. "We are quite hopeful that these boys will successfully defend their title."

Pakistan, under coach Rehmat Khan, won the World Junior title in Chennai in 2002 for the first time in over 20 years. The team is again being coached by Rehmat. To pick the players for the prestigious championship in which more than 22 teams are likely to take part, the PSF organized initial trials in Lahore to select nine players.

Khalid Atlas, Yasir Butt, Basit Ashfaq, Farhan Mahboob and Amir Atlas were exempted from appearing in the trials. Therefore to choose four others, selection trials among 12 players were organized at Lahore in April.

Those who attended were Bilal Zaman, Farzan Rashid, Majeed Hussain, Kashif Khan, Alamzeb Junior and Zahir Shah in the under-17 age bracket. In the under-19 category were Rizwan Ahmed, Jehanzeb Masood, Haider Jamal Zaffar, Adil Atlas, Aaqib Hanif and Shah Nawaz.

Based on their performances in the trials, the PSF selectors named Khalid, Yasir, Basit, Farhan, Amir, Bilal, Farzan, Aaqib and Shah Nawaz for training in Islamabad. During their training, the players continued to appear in national and international tournaments with some of them also competing in a league in Egypt.

The final trials then were staged last month with the team slots going to Khalid, Yasir, Basit and Farhan. To pick another two players for the individual event trials were conducted featuring five players following which Amir and Shah Nawaz earned selection.