KARACHI, Sept 20: While Pakistan called up discarded senior team players for the junior hockey camp, junior team manager Jahangir Butt on Thursday compromised when he said he can’t exclude full-back Mohammad Atiq on being undisciplined and over-aged.

Although the Olympian admitted Atiq had been involved in breaching the code of conduct, he said it was before he took over as manager.

“Atiq was involved in some indiscipline but it was before I was appointed,” said the official while contradicting his May 21 statement.

He had conceded in his statement that the defender was involved in indiscipline in the past and even during the under-18 camp for March’s tour to Kenya and Egypt.

He had also admitted that Atiq had been forming groups among the players and creating disturbances at practice sessions of the national training camp in Faisalabad for the two tours.

The Olympian had said Atiq was found ordering a fellow trainee at Faisalabad camp to pass on the ball to a particular player of his choice.

Jahangir, however, maintained his earlier stance that over-aged players could not be excluded on the basis of being over-aged.

“We can’t just say to any player that he is over-aged as all have Nadra’s documents showing their ages. But what we can do is that we can slowly and gradually axe them saying they are not worthy enough. But these things will take time,” said the manager.

Apart from Atiq, Shafqat Rasool, Amir Shahzad, and Atif Yaqoob are also over-aged. The quartet are definitely over-aged since 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, Amir and Atif all have been participating in Pakistan junior camps since 2001.

If one even considers the quartet was 15 years of age when they first appeared in the national camp in 2001 or 2002, they will surely be 20 or 21 years old now.

Jahangir was rendered speechless when asked if he considered Nadra’s age verification documents credible, then why he axed a number of players during the national junior championship in Faisalabad last month, although the players had age verification documents.

Interestingly, Atiq was also among senior camp trainees for the Asia Cup, while Mohammad Zubair has been discarded by senior team manager Islahuddin Siddiqui a few months ago.

According to Islah, Zubair lacks serious approach and doesn’t seem to be interested in training – an accusation which Zubair denies.

“He [Zubair] is in junior camp for the first time. It all depends on the manager, how he runs camp affairs and handles players. If Zubair does something which shows his lack of seriousness, I will also send him packing,” Jahangir said on the first day of the training camp being held at the Hockey Club of Pakistan for the Oct 17 to 21 six-nation under-19 tournament in Singapore.

Pakistan have India and Hong Kong in their pool, while Australia Malaysia and Singapore are clubbed together in the other pool.

Surprisingly, team management is likely to field Shafqat Rasool as right-in, although he is actually a left-in which defies logic.

The camp trainees also face a dilemma as the management has decided for usual morning and evening sessions, asking the trainees to decide whether or not they wanted to fast during Ramazan.

“We have no option except train as usual in morning and evening. Now it is up to the players to decide if they want to fast or not.”

Two-day trials for the event will be held on Sept 29 and 30. Pakistan are preparing for the 2009 Junior World Cup.