LAHORE, Nov 11: Former hockey Olympian Saleem Nazim has resigned as member of the national hockey selection committee on Thursday, citing rift with the secretary of the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) as the reason.
Saleem, in a press statement, said due to his clash with PHF secretary Brig Musarrat Ullah Khan over Punjab affairs he had not been consulted since July 4 regarding the affairs of the selection.
"Differences over the selection of junior team are one of the reasons for my resignation," Saleem said.
He said PHF secretary and the experts had been criticising the selection committee for the debacle at Athens Olympics but he was not responsible for team's defeat as he had no say in the selections affairs. Nazim admitted that selection committee had lost respect and weight after foreign coach Roelant Oltmans joined the squad. Centre-half Mohammad Saqlain was dropped by Oltmans before Olympic Games without consulting selection committee members, he added.
"But now Saqlain has again been called for the Champions Trophy while Oltmans had refused the accept PHF's request to accommodate Saqlain in the Olympic squad," he claimed.
Reacting over Saleem's statement, PHF secretary said he had already been omitted from the list of selectors. "Saleem has been representing Punjab in the selection committee and when he has been removed as Punjab Hockey Association secretary he has no place in selection committee," he said.
The decision of removing Saleem as selector had already been taken and the next general council meeting would give its approval, the secretary said.
Meanwhile, forward Kashif Jawwad missed the training session on Thursday after feeling pain in his knee during weight training.
However, team management said problem was not serious and the player would resume training from Friday.
Ghazanfar Ali and Mohammad Shabbir, the two missing players joined the camp on Thursday.
The camp has been set up to finalise Pakistan squad for the Champions Trophy to be held here from Dec 4 to 12.
