LAHORE: The training camp of national senior hockey probables for the upcoming Commonwealth Games to be played in Gold Coast, Australia from April 4 to 15 will be held at the Abdul Sattar Edhi Hockey Stadium at Karachi from Jan 22.

Former Test goalkeeper Imran Butt is also included as one of five goalies announced in the list. Imran Butt, younger brother of Olympian Rehan Butt, will surely be selected in the team after a lapse of one year, as Rehan has been included in the team management as assistant coach of the newly-appointed head coach Olympian Hasan Sardar.

Imran was out of the scene after leveling serious allegations against former head coach Khwaja Junaid in Feb 2017, alleging the coach had been mentally torturing him for the last six months. Even though the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) had announced that a committee would be formed to hear Imran’s allegations, no step has been taken as yet. Now the new selection committee headed by Islah-ud-din has called him for the camp. He is most likely to get a nod from the selectors in the final team.

The following probables are summoned:

Goalkeepers: Imran Butt (PIA), Amjad Ali (SSGC), Mazhar Abbas (NBP), Hafiz Umair (SNGPL), Waleed (Bannu); Full backs: Muhammad Aleem Bilal (WAPDA), Muhammad Irfan Senior (PIA), Mubashar Ali (SSGC), Tazeem-ul-Hassan (FFCL), Hassan Anwar (WAPDA); Half backs: Ammad Shakeel Butt (NBP), Muhammad Atif Mushtaq (NBP), Muhammad Rizwan Junior (SSGC), Tasawar Abbas (WAPDA), Abu Bakar Mahmood (NBP), Muhammad Tauseeq Arshad (WAPDA), Rashid Mahmood (Navy), Fareed Ahmad (WAPDA), Taimoor Malik (FFCL); Forwards: Muhammad Azfar Yaqoob (SSGC), Ali Shan (SSGC), Aijaz Ahmad (FFCL), Atiq Arshad (NBP), Muhammad Dilber (NBP), Muhammad Rizwan Sr. (Army), Muhammad Umar Bhutta (WAPDA), Shajeeh Ahmad Saeed (FFCL), Muhammad Rizwan (SSGC), Rana Suhail Riaz (SSGC), Muhammad Amir (NBP), Sami Ullah (WAPDA), Faizan (NBP), M. Bilal Qadir (NBP), Shafqat Rasool (PIA), Faisal Qadir (NBP), Khizar Akhtar (WAPDA), Shan Irshad (NBP), Ali Hussain (NBP), Umar Hamdi (WAPDA), Irfan Junior (WAPDA), Arslan Qadir (NBP), Junaid Kamal (NBP).

Published in Dawn, January 20th, 2018