LAHORE: The Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) has taken a surprise decision to hold a five-month long camp for the juniors from June 9 to Oct 10 to prepare and select the national junior team for participation in the 4th edition of Sultan of Johor Junior Invitational Hockey Tournament which will be held in Johor Baru, Malaysia from Oct 12-29.

The training camp is being set up at the Hockey Club of Pakistan Stadium, Karachi. The PHF has invited 53 junior probables and officials to report to Olympian Manzoor-ul-Hassan, the camp-commandant, on June 9.

Probables:

Goalkeepers: Munib-ur-Rehman (Railways), Talal (Wapda), Nauman (Islamabad), Adeel Rao (Punjab), Hafiz Ali Umair (Pak Boards), Awais (Punjab Colours), Wajid Ali (Customs), Ali Raza (NBP) and Kashif (Army).

Full Backs:: Mubasshir Ali (NBP), Abid Bhatti (NBP), Shah Faisal (Punjab Colours), Mateen (Customs), Hafiz Ammar Tayyab (Railway), M. Ahad (Wapda), Ejaz-ul-Haq (Lahore), Hassan Muhammad Anwar (Punjab), Ali Sher (Islamabad), Atif Mushtaq (PIA) and Nauman (Railway).

Half-backs: Sikandar Mustafa (NBP), Mohammad Junaid Kamal (NBP), Khizar Akhtar (NBP), Abu Bakar (PIA), Ghazanfar (Wapda), Waseem Abbas (Wapda), Qasim (Punjab Colours), Nayyar Haider (Wapda), Aasim Jonti (Punjab Colours), Azhar Hussain (Army), Arslan Zafar, Ali Haider Raza (Lahore) and Zahid Ghaffar (Lahore).

Forwards: M. Azfar Yaqoob (PIA), Nohaiz Zahid Malik (PIA), Shan Irshad (NBP), Samiullah (KP), Mirza Aamir Baig (Wapda), Ali Raza (NBP), Mohsin Sabir (Punjab), Asif (Punjab), Bilal (Wapda), Naveed (Wapda), Sarhan (Customs), Asfand (Balochistan), Aamir (PIA), Ilyas (PIA), Sohail Abbas (Karachi), Arslan (Customs), Nauman Wahab (Karachi), Abdul Saboor (Karachi), Sharjeel (Sindh) and Hammad (Sindh).

The officials include head coach Manzoor-ul-Hassan and coaches Qamar Ibrahim, Kamran Ashraf, Muhammad Akhlaq, Muhammad Irfan Sr and Rehan Butt. Dr. Mubasshir Mohsin is the physio while Nadeem Khan Lodhi is the video analyst.

Published in Dawn, June 4th, 2014