KARACHI, Dec 25: The Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) continued their strange ways as they again included controversial, over-aged and senior team players into the junior camp which started at Hockey Club of Pakistan on Tuesday.

It seems that instead of focusing on exploring young talent, the PHF administrators are hell-bent on achieving victory at all cost as they have once again compromised on discipline and age criteria.

For instance, full-back Mohammad Atiq is not only over-age but also a controversial figure as team manager Jahangir Butt is on record having said that the defender was involved in misconduct during a camp earlier this year.

According to Jahangir, Atiq was found asking one of his fellow trainees to pass on the ball to the player of his choice during a training session for tours to Kenya and Egypt.

Astonishingly, goalkeeper Imran Shah, who was axed by scrutiny committee member Jahangir Butt from the Habib Bank squad during the national junior championship in Faisalabad few months ago, is among the probables. Imran was out of action for six months before the nationals and directly joined the Champions Trophy camp for the seniors.

Two other players — Shafqat Rasool and Amir Shahzad — are definitely over-aged as they have been appearing in junior national training camps for the last five or six years.

With the exception of Atiq, who was first selected for the national camp in 2002, Shafqat and Amir have been participating in Pakistan junior camps since 2001. Even if one considers that the trio was 15 years of age when they first appeared in the national camp in 2001 or 2002, they will surely be 20 or 21 by now.

Interestingly, forward Mohammad Zubair, who has been made to shuttle to and fro in between the senior and junior teams, has once again been called up for the junior camp. Ironically, senior team manager Islahuddin Siddiqui, who was replaced after an injury by Khawaja Zakauddin for the Champions Trophy, had ruled Zubair out for lacking seriousness.

Kashif Ali, a promising penalty corner striker who graduated from the junior to senior side, has again been called back to the junior camp.

Inayatullah, who made his international debut with the seniors at the Champions Trophy despite being the junior reserve centre-forward, is also among the junior camp trainees.

However, Haseem Khan, undoubtedly the best spearhead in the country at the moment, is yet to make it to the senior side, although he had been in the senior camp in 2006.

Surprisingly, the PHF initially released a list of 31 probables before changing its mind and adding three more players for reasons better known to the federation’s bigwigs.

Hasan Akhtar, one of the camp probables, has not joined as he has gone to perform Hajj, while Shujaur Rahman was also absent for unknown reasons.

Pakistan juniors will be featuring in the eight-nation competition where Germany, Australia, the Netherlands, Spain, India, South Korea and hosts Malaysia, will also be in fray.

The contest which starts from Jan 17 in Kuala Lumpur will be Pakistan’s build-up to the Junior World Cup to be co-hosted by Malaysia and Singapore in 2009.