KARACHI: M Rizwan Sr, who didn’t appear in the two-day trials, was retained as captain of an 18-member Pakistan hockey team for the Commonwealth Games that was named by chief selector Islahuddin Siddiqui here on Tuesday.

The team shows a new face in Rana Sohail.

Lahore’s Rana Sohail was neither part of the team that featured in the three-nation tournament held at Muscat from Feb 14 to 20 nor selected for the 10th Asia Cup that took place at Dhaka from Oct 11 to 22 last.

Ammad Shakeel Butt has succeeded Arsalan Qadir as vice-captain of the team.

The team’s announcement settled the confusion that was created earlier this month that the PHF had already sent names of 18 players to the organisers of the Commonwealth Games.

“Team manager Hasan Sardar has assured that Rizwan Sr, who is playing league in Europe, will join the team before its departure to Gold Coast, Australia,” the chief selector told Dawn.

About the surprising inclusion of Rana Sohail, the chief selector said his (Sohail’s) name remained under consideration earlier too, but other player(s) got selector’s nod on merit.

Elaborating, he said it has been decided in principle that if any player will perform below par in international event will be ditched out and the selectors will not include him even in the camp probables.

Stressing on merit, he made it clear that one time selection in the team did not guarantee that a player will retain his place or not. “We’ll prefer to give chance to budding youth in the camp,” he added.

Clearing his position the former Olympian was critical that the reported announcement of 18-member team on March 1 not only put him in awkward position but shook the player’s morale besides creating a gulf between selector’s and the PHF.

Squad:

Imran Butt, Mazhar Abbas, M.Irfan Senior, Tazeem-ul-Hassan, Mubashar Ali, Faisal Qadir, Ammad Shakeel Butt (vice-captain), Tauseeq Arshad, Tasawwar Abbas, Abubakar Mahmood, M. Irfan Jr, Shafqat Rasool, Dilber, Ateeq Arshad, Ali Shan, Arslan Qadir, M. Rizwan Senior (captain) and Rana Sohail.

Published in Dawn, March 14th, 2018