KARACHI: The two-day trials for the selection of the Pakistan hockey team for the Commonwealth Games which commenced at the Abdul Sattar Edhi Stadium on Sunday seem to be farce as the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) had already sent 18 names to the organisers.

It is pertinent to mention that initially the PHF had sent names of 23 probables for online accreditation out of which which 18 were to be retained. Surprisingly, the PHF retained only eight from them and added 10 new players.

The last date for submission of squad was Nov 24 and after its expiry the organisers sent an SOS to the Pakistan Olympic Associa­tion (POA) giving a 24-hour deadline last month.

Meanwhile, with the exception of Rizwan Sr., 31 probables, who are attending the national camp under the supervision of the Dutch coach Roelant Oltmans, appeared in three sessions of 15-minutes apiece on the opening day of the trials, chief selector Islahuddin Siddiqui told Dawn.

Rizwan Sr. has not joined the camp and is playing league abroad.

Other members of the selection committee namely Farhat Khan, Ayaz Mahmood and Qasim Khan were also in attendance besides manager Hasan Sardar.

Islah said another member of the selection committee, Musaddiq Hussain, will join on Monday.

According to him, the trials will begin at 4.30pm on the same day.

When asked that what is the need of conducting the trials when the PHF had already finalised the names of 18 players, the chief selector said he will answer it on Monday after discussing the issue with the PHF hierarchy.

PHF president retired Brig Khalid Sajjad Khokhar and secretary Shahbaz Ahmed have returned to Islamabad from London.

The names of 18 players already sent by the PHF to the organisers of Common­wealth Games are as follows:

Imran Butt, Mazhar Abbas, Mohammad Irfan Sr, Mohammad Faisal Qadir, Mubashar Ali, Mohammad Aleem Bilal, Tazeem-ul-Hassan, Ammad Shakeel Butt, Abu Bakar Mahmood, Mohammad Toseeq Arshad, Mohammad Rizwan Sr, Shafqat Rasool, Mohammad Dilber, Shan Irshad, Mohammad Irfan Jr, Rana Suhail Riaz, Mohammad Atiq and Samiullah.

Published in Dawn, March 12th, 2018