LAHORE - Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) president Brig (r) Khalid Sajjad Khokhar Thursday appointed new management of national senior team and also formed the new selection committee in the wake of team's dismal (seventh) finish in the World Hockey League in England last month.

Former celebrated centre forward Hassan Sardar leads the new selection committee, whose other members are Ayaz Mahmood and Syed Musaddiq Hussain while former hockey Olympian Farhat Hassan Khan was named as the head coach and manager of the team with Malik M Shafqat and M Sarwar as the coaches. By forming new team management the President, the PHF has shown exit to the previous team management, headed by former Olympian, Khawaja Junaid as it did not take the responsibility of the team's debacle in London and did not resign.

The sources in the PHF said that PHF authorities were expecting that Junaid-led team management would show a heart to step down as Pakistan team exhibited its worst-ever performance in a qualifying tournament. "In the prevailing circumstances there was no choice left but to appoint the new team management as the previous management was not ready to quit, showing some responsibility as far as the poor performance of the team was concerned," they said.

On occasions, outgoing head coach Junaid said the task assigned to him was to inspire the team to qualify for the next year's world cup which he accomplished. But the PHF authorities out-rightly rejected the claim of Junaid as first five ranked teams of the world hockey league qualified for the world cup and Pakistan was not one of them as it did not directly qualify for the mega event and its qualification was courtesy of other teams who were the automatic choice for the qualification after their victory in their continental rounds or Asian championship.

The sources said Junaid tried his best to convince the PHF president to give him the chance to continue till the Asia Cup being played in the coming months but the PHF Chief put his foot down to show him the exit. "Junaid gave a firm assurance to the PHF President that the team will win the Asia Cup and if he fails to deliver he will quit but no consideration was given to his fresh claim," said the sources. "The new team management has been given the mandate till the December 2018," he added.

He said the PHF chief has also formed the new selection committee. Interestingly, the previous committee headed by Rasheed Junior did not accept the responsibility of team’s dismal performance in the league.