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LAHORE, March 29: Twenty-three probables were called for the training camp being held in Islamabad from March 31 to prepare and finalise Pakistan team for the hockey World Cup qualifier to be held at Changzhou, China, from April 12 to 23.
The final team will be announced on April 4 after the short training camp being held at the Islamabad Jinnah Sports Complex.
The team will leave for China on April 6 from Islamabad.
Pakistan has to play the qualifying round because of not having any international title.
Twelve teams are taking part in the qualifier and they have been divided into two pools ‘A’ and ‘B’.
Pool ‘A’ comprises Pakistan, Belgium, Canada, Egypt, England and Ireland while ‘B’ includes China, France, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia and New Zealand.
Tariq Aziz has been dropped for his involvement in back-to- back indiscipline incidents in the 18th Commonwealth Games. As was expected Ghazanfar and Ali and Akhtar Ali are also included in the list of probables.
Probables:
Nasir Ahmad, Salman Akbar, Zeeshan Ashraf, Adnan Maqsood, Imran Warsi, Adnan Zakir, Akhtar Ali, Dilawar Hussain, M. Imran, Sajjad Anwar, Muhammad Zubair, Rana Ghaznfar Ali, Shakeel Abbasi, Waqas Vikki, Rehan Butt, Mudassar Ali Khan, Waqas Sharif, Imran Khan, Mudassar Khan, Muhammad Shabbir, Muhammad Saqlain (captain), Ihsan Ullah ,Shabbir Khan.
Schedule:
April 12: Pakistan vs Canada; Belgium vs. Egypt; South Korea vs. France; China vs New Zealand; England vs Ireland; Malaysia vs Japan.
April 13: Pakistan vs Belgium; Egypt vs. England; Ireland vs Canada.
April 14: New Zealand vs Japan; South Korea vs Malaysia; France vs China.
April 15: Canada vs England; Belgium vs Ireland; Egypt vs Pakistan.
April 16: Japan vs South Korea; China vs Malaysia; New Zealand vs France.
April 17: Ireland vs. Egypt; Canada vs Belgium; England vs Pakistan.
April 18: Malaysia vs. France; Japan vs China; S Korea vs New Zealand.
April 19: Belgium vs England; Pakistan vs Ireland; Egypt vs Canada; France vs. Japan; New Zealand vs Malaysia; China vs. S Korea.
April 20: Rest Day.
April 21 and 22 : 2nd round matches. Apr 23: Classification matches and final.
