Pakistan team for Hamburg hockey to be named today

KARACHI - One day national hockey trials to select an 18-memebr team for four nation Hamburg Masters Hockey will be held on Friday starting at 4 PM at the Hockey Club of Pakistan Stadium. Besides host Germany, Belgium and Malaysia are other teams in the competition starting October 3. This is the first international hockey competition after Beijing Olympics where Germany won the gold and Pakistan finished at 8th place. As many as 35 out of 37 players invited to attend a brief training camp now in progress here at the HCP will appear before a three member temporary selection committee during the trials. PHF president Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali, PJF secretary Asif Bajwa and manager cum chief coach designate of the team, former Olympian Jahangir Butt will form the selection panel. The selected team will leave here for Germany on September 30. Mercury in the city have suddenly jumped up into late thirties. With heavy humidity and a heat wave sweeping the city, the temperatures are unbearable. Playing on watered plastic turf under hot conditions would put extra burden on the fitness of the players who until the heat wave arrived were training under cools and comfortable conditions. The manager cum-chief-coach Jahangir Butt, when contacted, said that thirty five players would appear in the trials. When asked would full back Muhammad Imran and left striker Muhammad Rizwan who are in South Korea with Army team would be considered for selection even without appearing in the trials, he said only the PHF president could decide to exempt them from the trials if these two players not available. Some of the senior players with the permission of the PHF have decided to go abroad and play in different European hockey leagues. They were not picked to attend the national training camp and would not be consoidered for selection. Following players who attend the training campo will appear in the trials. Goalkeepers: Nasir Ahmed, Imran Shah, Imran Butt, Waseem Ahmed. Right fullbacks: Kashif Ali, Muhammad Atiq. Left fullbacks: Imran Abbas, Muhammad Khalid, Adnan Javed. Right half: M. Irfan, Khurram Shahzad, Kashif Javed. Center half: Zaheer Ahmed, Rana Asif, Rashid. Left half: Fareed Ahmed, Aamir Shahzad, Rashid Minhas Right out: Waqas Sharif, Adeel Hussain, Hassan Akhter. Right-In: Inayat Ullah, M. Taufiq, Rana Umair, Khurram Shahzad, Azlan Khan. Center-forward: Shakeel Abbasi, Shabbir Khan, Haseem Khan. Left-In: Shafqat Rasool, M. Zubair, Shahbaz Left-out: Akhtar Ali,  Nasir Shah, M. Imran.

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