KARACHI, Oct 27: Pakistan Hockey Federation’s (PHF) newly-formed selection committee and chief junior coach have announced the names of 36 probables for the camp to be held in preparation for the five-Test home junior hockey series between Pakistan and India starting Nov 12.

The selection committee, headed by former Olympian hockey legend Hasan Sardar with Olympians Rana Mujahid, Khalid Bashir, Farhat Khan and International Mohammad Shafique as its members, selected the boys after two-day trials here at the Hockey Club of Pakistan (HCP) for which some 80 boys had been called initially but only around 57 attended. Also present on the occasion was the team’s new Chief Coach Qamar Ibrahim.

While speaking of the selection process that will ultimately see the selection of 22 boys for the junior squad, at the conclusion of camp on Nov 2, Hasan said: “Only those boys who attended the trials were considered.” The chief selector also pointed out some of the outstanding players, “We were especially impressed by forwards Shahbaz, Shafqat Rasool, Zubair and Haseem Khan.”

About the trials, he said: “We haven’t been able to hold open trials as the Indian series is already upon our head. Our target is the Junior World Cup that will be held in the first week of June, 2009 and the forthcoming series will be good practice for the boys as India has a good junior squad.”

On being asked whether the Pakistan team would be paying a return visit to India, Hasan said that there wasn’t really much time for that now.

In making their selection, the committee also issued a warning for other players with disciplinary problems. Goalkeeper Imran Butt was not called for the trials as he had earlier declared himself unavailable for the Hamburg Masters trials due to his exams. “But PHF Secretary Asif Bajwa later found out that he did not appear in any kind of exams and was only skipping the trials so we did not even consider him this time,” said Hasan.

The five matches in the Pakistan-India series will be played at Karachi (Nov 12), Rawalpindi (Nov 14), Faisalabad (Nov 16), Sialkot (Nov 18) and Lahore (November 20).

Probables:

Goalkeepers: Imran Shah, Khurram Majeed, Waseem Ahmed, Waqas.

Fullbacks: Kashif Ali, Ateeq, Imran Abbas, Adnan Javed, M. Nawaz, Rana Akmal.

Halfbacks: Irfan, Kashif Jawaid, Junaid, Zaheer Ahmed, Rashid, Usman Tariq, Amir Shahzad, Farid Ahmed, Khurram.

Forwards: Adeel Hussain, Ramzan, Hasan Akhtar, Salman, Tofeeq, Azlan Khan, Khurram Shahzad, Yasir, Haseem Khan, Inayatullah, Imran Malik, Shafqat Rasool, Shahbaz, Irfan, Zubair, Rizwan, M. Imran.