KARACHI: The Pakistan hockey team for the Commonwealth Games will be named on Tuesday after getting it formally approved from the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) president retired Brig Khalid Sajjad Khokhar.

“As per practice, the team will be announced after getting consent of the PHF chief and we’ll send a press release,” PHF secretary Shahbaz Ahmed, who watched the trials, told Dawn on Monday.

The two-day trials convened by the PHF concluded at the Abdul Sattar Hockey Stadium on Monday which was participated by 31 probables.

The selectors and the Dutch coach Roelant Oltmans tried different

combinations during four sessions of 15 minutes each on the concluding day of the trials.

The selection committee headed by former Olympian Islahuddin Siddiqui and comprising Ayaz Mahmood, Farhat Khan, Musaddiq Hussain and Qasim Khan were in attendance.

The trials were followed by long deliberations between the PHF secretary, selectors, Dutch coach and the team manager Hasan Sardar.

Asked that the PHF had already sent 18 names to the organisers of the Commonwealth Games, he clarified that the PHF had sent 27 names and the team will be named from them.

Shahbaz said: “We’ve hired the services of reputed coach Oltmans and his input was imperative while finalising the team”.

To a question, he sounded confident that accreditation cards will not become an issue.

The XXI Commonwealth Games runs in the Australian city of Gold Coast from April 4-15.

Published in Dawn, March 13th, 2018