LAHORE: With barely a month left before the Asian Games start, the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) in a surprising move on Sunday made four major changes to the national team management on the recommendations of recently-appointed head coach Olympian Shahnaz Sheikh.

The 19th edition of the Asian Games will be staged in Hangzhou, China from Sept 23 to Oct 8.

Dawn has learnt that coaches Rehan Butt, Mohammad Saqlain, Haseem Khan and Mohammad Ghafoor have been replaced with Shakeel Abbasi and Amjad Ali while Dilawar Hussain is the only coach of the previous management who was retained.

Moreover, another Olympian Saeed Khan was named manager of the national team.

When contacted, PHF secretary Haider Hussain confirmed the changes to the team management adding the changes were made on the recommendations of Shahnaz, who wanted like-minded team of coaches.

The changes to the team management had to be approved by the organising committee of the Asian Games and the process would start soon, Haider added.

Interestingly, just four days ago the Pakistan Sports Board issued a letter suspending all PHF officials and called for new elections.

However, the PSB in the said letter had said that the current team management (Aug 20) would not be changed. However, to the contrary while the PHF officials are still working, they changed the team management.

It seems Rehan and Saqlain were made scapegoats to make Shahnaz happy who is the nominated coach from the government side.

The PHF, it appears, bowed to the government to get its nod to continue with its remaining tenure (three years) and for this Shahnaz could play the role of a bridge between the federation and the government.

Before joining the national team as head coach just a few days before the squad left for Chennai to compete in the Asian Champions Trophy earlier this month, Shahnaz was a member of the prime minister’s committee, along with other hockey stalwarts like Akhtar Rasool and Islahuddin Siddiqi to scrutinise the performance of the federation.

The committee had recommended to the PM to remove PHF president retired Brig Khalid Sajjad Khokhar.

But later, on the recommendation of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Sports, Shahnaz was accepted as head coach of the national team by the PHF.

It is also learnt that the cash-strapped PHF will not make any payment to Shahnaz, as this matter is between Shahnaz and the PSB.

Meanwhile when contacted, Saqlain confirmed that he had received the new PHF instructions about his removal as coach.

Regretting that everyone concerned was moving in their own direction, Saqlain appealed to all the stakeholders to come together and find out the solution to the problems that had caused alarming decline of Pakistan’s national sport.

To a question, Saqlain said with just one month left in the Asian Games there would be several challenges for the new team management.

PROBABLES FOR ASIAD ANNOUNCED

Also on Sunday, the PHF national selection committee, led by Olympian Kaleemullah, announced 36 probables for the Asian Games.

These probables will attend a training camp starting at the Naseer Bunda Hockey Stadium in Islamabad on Monday.

Probables:

Goalkeepers: Akmal Hussain, Abdullah Ishtiyaq Khan, Waqar, Ali Raza, Abdullah Sheikh.

Defenders: Mohammad Abdullah, Arbaz Ahmad, Mohammad Sufyan Khan, Aqeel Ahmed, Mohammad Bilal Aslam.

Midfielders: Usama Bashir, Mohammad Murtaza Yaqoob, Arbaz Ayaz, Ahtisham Aslam, Mohammad Baqar, Mohammad Nadeem Khan, Mohammad Imran, Syed Shehbaz Haider

Forwards: Mohammad Imad, Afraz, Roman, Arshad Liaquat, Abdul Qayyum, Abdul Rehman, Waqar Ali, Mohammad Arsalan, Mohammad Umar Bhat, Abdul Hannan Shahid, Mohammad Shahzaib Khan, Abdul Wahab, Zikriya Hayat, Bisharat Ali, Rana Waleed, Hamza Fayaz, Abdul Rehman.

Published in Dawn, August 21st, 2023