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| July 20, 2006 | Thursday | Jumadi-ul-Sani 23, 1427 |
Poor selection mars naming of junior squad for Singapore
KARACHI, July 19: Pakistan named an 18-member junior hockey squad for next month’s four-nation tournament in Singapore on Wednesday amid a few glaring omissions and conspicous absence of chief selector Khalid Mahmood.
The selection of the squad was marred by some questionable decisions since several talented youngsters were overlooked as opposed to a few undeserving candidates who made the squad.
Quite noticeable were the omissions of promising utility half-back Khurram Shahzad, Hassan Akhtar and Inayatullah who were all ignored without any real justification.
On the other hand, Adnan Jawaid found his place in the team despite his absences from the camp for about five days owing to an ankle injury.
Sources claimed that Adnan got the nod on the recommendation of Muhammad Shafique, director domestic hockey at the PHF.
Similarly, right-in Mustansar Sheikh, who replaced Irfan, was inducted as left-in on team manager Manzoor Jr’s advice. Mohammad Atiq has been retained as the team captain for the tour.
Meanwhile, selector Hassan Sardar while announcing the team, said that Khalid Mahmood was consulted over telephone prior to the finalization of the squad and the chief selector gave a green signal to the outfit since he knew the strengths of the players who toured Poland earlier this year.
“The chief selector has been consulted on the squad over the phone since he was in Islamabad to attend a Senate meeting.
“There is no need for him to watch trials as he already has enough knowledge about each of the players who toured Poland recently,” Hassan told a press conference.
Interestingly though, Manzoorul Hassan was also not present at the trials on Wednesday as he was busy watching Pakistan ‘A’ training camp probables in Faisalabad where he is posted as PIA employee.
The trials were watched by selectors Hassan Sardar and Akhtarul Islam and the two ‘makeshift selectors’ Islahuddin Siddiqui and Muhammad Shafique who were assigned by the PHF to complete the quorum.
Islah, who arrived late and only managed to watch the last session of the trials, vehemently denied acting as selector on the occasion.
He clarified that he was the director technical at the PHF and was only available for “advice on the selection matters.”
“I am definitely not a selector. As director technical all I can do is give my advice to the selection committee. I neither attended the selectors’ meeting nor signed the sheet bearing the names of selected players,” said the former Olympian.
He, however, shied away from making any comments when specifically asked whether he gave his input to the selectors.
Hassan, on the other hand, confirmed that Islah along with Shafiq was very much a part of the selection affairs and gave his input after watching the two-day trials.
“Of course both Islah and Shafique are deeply involved in all the selection matters. They watched the trials on both the days and there is no doubt that they acted as selectors,” explained Hassan.
Needless to say, the current scenario has rendered the whole selection process doubtful.
Squad:
Goalkeepers: Imran Shah, Imran Butt.
Full-backs: Mohammad Atiq (captain), Kashif Ali, Majid Khan.
Half-backs: Mohammad Zaheer, Amir Shahzad, Mohammad Irfan, Adnan Jawaid, Mohammad Fareed.
Forwards: Adeel Hussain, Mohammad Atif, Haseen Khan, Shafqat Rasool, Abbas Haider, Mustansar Sheikh, Imran Malik, Mohammad Imran.
Standbyes: Waqas (goalkeeper), Khurram Shahzad, Wasif, Junaid Iqbal (full-backs), Abrar (half-backs), Azlan Khan, Irfan, Hassan Akhtar, Taufeeq, Inayatullah and Mohammad Amin (forwards).
Officials: Manzoor Jr (manager), Qamar Ibraheem (coach), Ahmad Alam (goalkeeping coach).
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