KARACHI, Aug 20: Pakistan hockey chief coach Islahuddin Siddiqui on Monday ruled out three national camp absentees for the forthcoming Asia Cup in Chennai, saying that players who prefer junior championship over senior activity should not be considered.

Mohammad Zubair, Waqas Akbar and Irfan – all from PIA – are representing their department at the ongoing national junior championship in Faisalabad. Their absence reduced the number of probables called up from 35 to 32.

“They are busy playing national junior championship while they should have been in the senior national training camp for Asia Cup. For them, junior championship is more important than senior camp. If this is the situation, they will not be considered for selection especially since there is not enough time left in departure of the team,” Islah told Dawn after evening session at the Hockey Club of Pakistan.

According to chief coach, who is also the team manager, the squad leaves on Sunday for the Indian city to take part in the tournament which starts from Aug 31. Among the teams that will be vying for honours are China, Bangladesh, Hong Kong, India, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Thailand.

Islah said in principle he was personally against switching of players from senior to junior side. The players are unlikely to report for the camp as junior championship ends on Aug 28 – two days after departure of Pakistan squad.

“It doesn’t make any sense. I strongly believe that once a player has graduated to the senior side, he should never be allowed to play for the junior side. But in case of these three players, they have done that which is ridiculous. At least Irfan should have joined since he is among the four new players selected for the first time in senior camp,” said the coach.

However, he said Zubair had been dropped after Azlan Shah Cup in May as his performance in the camp took a sharp nosedive.

“Besides bad performance, he (Zubair) lacks serious approach. He didn’t seem to be serious in training, although he has potential.”

Asked about the recent slump in form of the left-out (Zubair) after he had attracted the attention of many hockey pundits, the coach said Zubair became overconfident and perhaps considered himself to be indispensable.

“Players after appearing in the Indian league had become overconfident. They thought they will be in the squad regardless of their performance,” said Islah.

However, the coach was not too convincing when it was pointed out that skipper Rehan Butt’s performance had also declined after the Indian league.

Zubair, nevertheless, says it was instructions from his department which forced him to play at national junior championship.

“All three of us are playing on the instructions of our department. We can’t put our jobs at risk by disobeying the orders. Our coach had taken permission from the PHF secretary Khalid Mahmood to play in the junior championship who also told our coach that there is no harm as we are not in contention for a place in the senior squad.

“I don’t want to play for the juniors. I love to play for senior team but have been dropped without any good reason although I have played 40 matches and scored 10 goals. I can’t think of showing casual attitude in the training camp,” said Zubair said from Faisalabad.

Sources, however, say Zubair has opted to stay away from the senior camp as a result of frustration on being discarded.

Islah said since the squad was jointly selected for four-nation in Beijing and Asia Cup, PHF chief Zafarullah Jamali had empowered the team management to make changes for the Chennai event.

Meanwhile, electricity failure hampered the training sessions as pitch could not be watered. The situation forced Islah and coach Manzoorul Hassan to ask probables to play seven-a-side matches to avoid serious injuries owing to dry and bouncy turf.