LAHORE The Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) on Wednesday held back the name of the national team's new foreign coach and recalled four discarded senior players to train for the European tour.
The PHF Executive Board, in its meeting held here on Wednesday, approved the name of a foreign coach for the national team but the official announcement will have to wait before a final clearance from the Federal Sports Ministry is made. According to the reliable sources in the federation, the foreign coach is likely to be Dutchman Michel van den Heuvel whose expenses will be entirely borne by the sports ministry.
“The Executive Board has given the PHF its approval for a foreign coach, but at the moment we can't announce his name because an approval of the Federal Sports Ministry is required. The ministry will provide the funds to the PHF for the foreign coach,” PHF secretary Asif Bajwa said after attending the EB meeting. “The foreign coach will bring with him his own hand-picked technical staff to assist him,” he said.
The Federal Sports Ministry is already funding three other federations including wrestling, volleyball and taekwondo for their foreign coaches in preparation for the Asian Games which are will be held in China later this year.
The PHF will later announce the name of an assistant coach and manager of the team. The EB has decided to appoint hockey managers on tour-to-tour basis.
Meanwhile, the four discarded players recalled to the Euro tour camp are Rehan Butt, Shakeel Abbasi, Sohail Abbas and Wasim Ahmed. All four were axed two months ago when chief selector Hanif Khan refused to select them for the Azlan Shah Cup in April after their requests to skip the event in Malaysia in order to get some 'rest'.
Sources, however, said the four players were still reluctant to join the training camp for the European tour and were keener to play the professional league in Bangladesh from June 20 to July 25. But they finally agreed to join the camp when the PHF assured them of selection for the upcoming European tour.
Rehan Butt met secretary PHF Asif Bajwa here on Wednesday and after having the assurance of getting selected, gave his consent for the training camp on behalf of the other three players as well.
Experts believe that the move may not go down well with chief selector Hanif Khan and the Dutch coach who may prefer to select their best outfits for the tour.
The PHF is trying to play series against three countries on the European tour before enetering the Asian Games in China later this year. A series against Spain has been decided while negotiations are underway to arrange matches with Holland and Belgium.
Probables Nasir Ahmad, Zeeshan Ashraf, Sohail Abbas, Mohammad Imran, Mohammad Irfan, Waseem Ahmed, Mohammad Rashid, Fareed Ahmad, Shafqat Rasool, Rehan Butt, Shakeel Abbasi, Abdul Haseem Khan, Mohammad Zubair, Akhtar Ali, Mohammad Waqas Sharif, Mohammad Rizwan (Army), Mohammad Omer Bhutta, Syed Kashif Shah, Salman Akbar, Kashif Ali, Mohammad Kashif Ali, Imran Butt, Imran Shah, Amir Shahzad, Mohammad Tauseeq, Abdul Qayyum Dogar, Zeeshan Ali, Mohammad Rizwan (PIA) and Kashif Javed.
