KARACHI, April 1: Pakistan roll off their preparations for this month's Junior Asia Cup with a hockey training camp from Friday with few deserving players missing on the list.

While talented but over-age players Mohammad Iqbal, Shakeel Abbasi and Imran Warsi have been called up, promising youngsters Owais Moeed, Mudassir Abbas and Rizwan Khan are not invited.

Rizwan, who was first called up for the junior camp in 2002 before the formation of the squad, was later axed along with Imran Warsi and Imran Khan and few others by the then manager Col Abdur Rauf, saying the players were over-age.

Goalkeeper Iqbal was even caught by Rauf for sending his younger brother for wrist test conducted to determine player's age. Interestingly, Iqbal, Imran Warsi, and Imran Khan will now train for the Cup, while Rizwan, a skillful left-in, failed to attract the attention of the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF).

Surprisingly, youthful Owais's name is also missing from 29- man list announced by the PHF on March 26, although he showed tremendous potential during the national championship departmental qualifying round recently in Karachi.

As for Mudassir, he was included in the training camp for series against the Dutch and Malaysian junior sides last month on the recommendation of coach Asif Bajwa.

The junior team manager Jahangir Butt said the squad would be named on April 6 after the trials the same day. The ten-nation tournament, which also serves as qualifying round for The Netherlands Junior World Cup, begins from April 20 at Hockey Club of Pakistan.