KARACHI, April 21: Selectors will converge at the Hockey Club of Pakistan on Sunday for the first time since the commencement of the training camp to select Pakistan hockey squad for Azlan Shah Cup which will be hosted by Malaysian city of Ipoh next month.

While selector Abdul Rashid is yet to visit the camp set up for May 5 to 13 tournament, Samiullah have visited the camp just once though it has been running since April 9.

The selectors will finalise squad on Monday after two-day trials.

Manzoorul Hassan watched the probables daily except for two days when he went to attend a wedding of the son of a former Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) president. But his presence at the camp was as team coach.

At the moment, PHF has no chief selector since Khalid Mahmood has been elected PHF secretary on April 2. PHF president Zafarullah Jamali had stated that he would appoint the chief selector before Azlan Shah Cup but the appointment is yet to be made.

“We will let the media know tomorrow who will be the chief and third selector,” Khalid told Dawn.

Manager-cum-chief coach Islahuddin Siddiqui, who supervised the training sessions along with Manzoor in blistering heat, might give his input to selectors but only as a co-opted member of the selection committee.

The two coaches who watched the trainees in action in morning and evening sessions are indeed better individuals to judge the performance. But Islah thinks otherwise as he believes that selectors should be involved in the process.

Islah didn’t agree when asked if he and Manzoor be given sweeping powers to select the squad. “We already have a system of selection. I think it is better to have different opinions rather than having input of one or two people,” said Islah who along with Manzoor is working as paid professional in the capacity of manager and coach respectively.

The former Pakistan captain was adamant on having a selection committee even when told that nowhere in the world paid professional coaches prefer to have selectors.

Interestingly, the so-called selection committee in 2003-4 headed by Akhtar Rasool became redundant when Dutch coach Roelant Oltmans made it clear that he would not tolerate inference by “selection committee”. “I am the final authority in selection matters,” stated Oltmans.

The foreigner proved his claim by showing controversial centre-half Mohammad Saqlain the door for hitting team-mate Adnan Maqsood during practice days before 2004 Athens Olympics.

It has been a tradition that coach usually does the hard work, but finally “selectors” who hardly visit the training camps, give their nod before each event.

PHF has now hired paid team officials for the first time in the history, but didn’t abolish the selection committee. In the present scenario the selectors should also have been hired as paid officials and their presence during the camps made mandatory or the selection committee should have been scraped altogether.

Islah, however, flatly refused to comment when asked if the presence of selectors was a mere formality since they never visited the camp. “Samiullah once came to the camp but I do not want to comment anymore on this subject,” said Islah.

However, the manager said there might not be major changes in the squad that featured at Doha Asian Games last December where minnows China shocked Pakistan 2-1 in the semi-finals.

“We might induct new players in the future events before 2008 Beijing Olympics. But we will do it slowly and gradually.”

The manager didn’t agree that young blood should be infused as early as possible to form a new-look and youthful Olympic squad, although Pakistan will not be featuring at any major event before Beijing extravaganza.