LAHORE: Former Olympians Rehan Butt, Mohammad Saqlain and Dilawar Hussain have been inducted into the national senior hockey team’s coaches panel to train 45 probables called up by the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) at a camp being set up for this year’s Asian Champions Trophy.

A training camp is being set up at the National Hockey Stadium in Lahore from June 12 for the seventh edition of the six-nation continental event which will be staged in Chennai from Aug 3 to 12, said a PHF press release issued on Thursday.

Former international player Abdul Haseem Khan is also included in the coaches panel, which contains no head coach.

Abdul Ghafoor has been appointed goalkeeping coach and retired Col Umar Sabir manager, who will supervise the training camp at the National Hockey Stadium.

The 45-year-old Saqlain as centre-half represented Pakistan from 1998 to 2008 while Rehan, 42, served the country as centre-forward from 2001 to 2012.

Several players, who represented Pakistan at the recently-held Junior Asia Cup in Oman where the green-shirts earned second position after going down fighting against archrivals India 2-1 in the final, have been included in the probables’ list.

It may be mentioned here that the PHF had already given its confirmation to the Asian Hockey Federation for participating in the event, while still seeking NOC from the government, as the event is being held in India, amid strained political relations between New Delhi and Islamabad.

Probables:

Goalkeepers: Abdullah Ishtiaq Khan (MPCL), Akmal Hussain (Wapda), Ali Raza (Punjab), Mohammad Faizan Janjua (Customs), Waqar (Wapda), Abdullah Sheikh (Sindh), Bilal Khan (Balochistan)

Defenders: Arbaz Ahmad (MPCL), Mohammad Sufyan Khan (KP), Mohammad Abdullah (MPCL), Aqeel Ahmed (Wapda) & Mohammad Bilal Aslam (Customs)

Midfielders: Junaid Manzoor (NBP), Ahtisham Aslam (MPCL), Mohammad Murtaza Yaqoob (Wapda), Mohammad Baqir (Punjab), Arbaz Ayaz (Sindh), Mohammad Nadeem Khan (KP), Mohammad Zain (Customs), Mohammad Ammad (Customs)

Forwards: Rana Abdul Waheed (Wapda), Mohammad Umar Bhutta (Wapda), Afraz (MPCL), Abdul Hannan Shahid (Wapda), Rooman (Wapda), Mohammad Shahzaib Khan (Customs), Usama Bashir (PAF), Mohammad Imran (PAF), Arshad Liaqat (MPCL), Abdul Wahab (Sindh), Abdul Rehman (Wapda), Zikriya Hayat (Navy), Ali Murtaza (Customs), Basharat Ali (Navy), Abdul Qayyum (Customs), Bilal Akram

(Punjab), Mohammad Adnan (Sindh), Rana Suhail Riaz (Customs), Waqar Ali (MPCL), Shoaib Khan (KP), Abdul Wajid (Balochistan), Saad Shafique (Punjab), Taimoor Javed Khan (Punjab), Syed Shahbaz Haider (Navy), Mohammad Arsalan (Punjab)

Officials: Retired Col Umar Sabir (manager); Mohammad Saqlain, Rehan Butt, Dilawar Hussain, Abdul Haseem Khan (coaches); Abdul Ghafoor (goalkeeping coach); Mohammad Shahid (physio).

Published in Dawn, June 9th, 2023