LAHORE The sword is once again hanging over the heads of the senior players as the national hockey selection committee, headed by Olympian Hanif Khan, deferred announcing the Pakistan Whites team for the tour of China, despite their having completed the day-long trials here.
The selection committee has said that it will now be announcing the final team along with the Pakistan senior side after holding one-day trials at the Hockey Club of Pakistan (HCP) in Karachi on Wednesday. “The decision to announce both squads the same day was taken by the selectors due to the inclusion of some senior players in the Whites team. This way the players from the senior camp who are not considered for the team will then get a chance to join the Whites team. The aim behind the decision was to make a good combination of junior and senior players,” Hanif said.
The Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) had organised simultaneous training camps for the seniors and Whites sides at Karachi and Lahore. The seniors are to tour Europe as part of its preparations for the Commonwealth and Asian Games. The Whites are to compete in a four-nation tournament scheduled to be held in China.
It has been learnt that as the Asian Games are to be held in China, the PHF think tank is considering the option to send some senior players with the Whites team in order to get acclimatised with the conditions there.
Therefore, it is most likely that some senior players will be included in the Whites team to make it stronger as well as get some exposure in China before the Asiad. But on the other hand, the chief selector can once again make headlines by not selecting some seniors like Rehan Butt, Wasim Ahmad, Shakeel Abbasi and Sohail Abbas, as he did at the time of picking a team for the last Sultan Azlan Shah Cup.
The cold war between the selectors and these four players is still on. It may be recalled that the four senior players were reluctant to report to the training camp at Karachi as they preferred playing the league in Bangladesh. The reason behind this was not being selected again. But the PHF did not extend them permission to go to Bangladesh while asking them to join the camp.
However, Rehan Butt met PHF Secretary Asif Bajwa and it is said that all four players gave him their consent to join the camp after being ensured places in the team for the tour of Europe. Still, penalty-corner specialist Sohail Abbas is yet to report to the camp with no one knowing about his whereabouts.
Hanif's decision to announce both the teams with some adjustment of senior players in the Whites side has raised eyebrows as there is a chance of some seniors getting included in the Whites team.
Hanif watched the trials with other selectors, namely, Musaddaq Hussain, Mohammad Usman and Arshad Chaudhary.
The Pakistan senior team will visit Europe in the second week of July, while Pakistan Whites will take part in the 4-Nation Hockey Tournament in China from July 7-11.
