KARACHI, Nov 23: Pakistan hockey administrators continue to ignore the juniors as none of the selectors deem it necessary to pay a visit to the training camp.

Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) recently installed a new selection committee along with a “reshuffled” team management, but so far not a single selector has come to the camp.

Former PHF chief Akhtar Rasool heads the new selection committee which has Hassan Sardar, Saeed Khan and Saleem Nazim as its members. PHF secretary Brig Musarrat Ullah Khan is the cop- opted member of the committee.

Interestingly, according to the PHF, the selection committee also serves as the “think tank” which is suppose to unearth the talent from the grassroots level including schools and colleges.

The juniors are lodged at Pakistan Steel Mills Complex from Nov 18 for the Under-19 international tournament to be hosted by Kuala Lumpur in January.

The camp trainees have already been hit hard because of the absence of coach Ayaz Mahmood who left Friday night for Perth, Australia, to participate in the FIH coaches course which had already started from Nov 21 and ends on Nov 28.

Ironically, Hassan never came to the camp despite being based in Karachi where the camp has been set up. It is Hassan on whose suggestion the PHF has formed a “think tank”.

To rub salt to the wounds the former centre-forward found time and energy to appear in a minor local event where he played for a veterans side. But surprisingly he failed to come and watch the juniors at the camp.

Amazingly, Hassan has always been against the very idea of having a selection committee and had recommended to give sweeping powers to the coach rather than the selectors.

Saeed Khan’s appointment as selector is also controversial given the fact he had clearly stated in the past he would not be able to give time for the selection duty and had resigned from the post.

It has become sort of a tradition that coach trains the players but the squad is always selected after the approval of rubber-stamp selectors who hardly visit camps.

The selectors only watch the players in action during the final trials before giving their nod of approval.

According to the PHF secretary, the PHF finds it hard to give sole authority to the coach and it is necessary to maintain checks and balances in the selection process.

Pakistan Juniors who toured Cairo, Egypt, to play in the four- nation tournament organized earlier September, had also been selected after the approval of the selection committee whose members never visited the camp.