KARACHI: Pakistan hockey team left here on Tuesday norning for Gold Coast, Australia, to compete in the Commonwealth Games being held there from April 4-15.

Strangely, the team left without its captain M. Rizwan Senior who failed to arrive in time from Holland where he has been engaged in a league.

It is pertinent to mention that Rizwan Senior was retained as captain despite the fact that he didn’t appear in the trials. Sources said he is likely to join the team in Australia.

Meanwhile, team officials are keeping their fingers crossed for better results from the greenshirts, who are presently ranked 13th in the world.

This is Pakistan hockey team’s second visit abroad this year and first under the Dutch coach Oltmans. Earlier, the team had participated in a three-nation event at Muscat. The other two teams were Japan and host Oman.

Pakistan finished runners-up, losing 2-3 to Japan in the final. In the same event they were held to a two-all draw by Japan and four-all by Oman which raised many a eyebrow.

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.

Officials: Hasan Sardar (manager), Roelant Oltmans (head coach), Mohammad Saqlain, Rehan Butt (ssistant coaches), Mohammad Nadeem Khan Lodhi (video analyst).

Published in Dawn, March 28th, 2018