The News International

By Khalid Hussain

KARACHI: Pakistan?s 18-member squad for the next month?s Olympic Qualifiers in Madrid will "almost" be the same team that will represent the country in this summer?s Olympic Games in Athens, a top Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) official said on Sunday.

"We are unlikely to make many changes to the squad after finalising the team for Madrid so more or less the same players will go on to compete in the Olympic Games," said PHF secretary Brigadier (retd) Musarratullah Khan while talking to this correspondent on telephone from Lahore.

Pakistan are scheduled to announce their 18-member squad for the Olympic Qualifiers in Lahore on February 18. The 12-team Olympic Qualifiers will be held from March 2 to 13 with the top seven teams making the cut for this August?s Athens Olympics.

According to the PHF, the biggest change Pakistan will make in the squad for the Athens Games is to cut down the squad to 16 from 18 because a participating country can only field 16 players for the Olympic Games while a team can have a maximum of 18 players for most international competitions including the Olympic Qualifiers.

Musarrat pointed out that Pakistan have experimented with different combinations in recent events including this January?s Sultan Azlan Shah Cup in Kuala Lumpur and now was the time to come out with a team for the Olympic Games.

"We want to finalse our team for Athens well ahead of the Games in order to give the players ample time to get ready for the tough challenge." It is because of this reason that the national team management, the selection and the PHF top brass are taking the selection of the Madrid-bound squad very seriously.

On Sunday, officials of the federation, selection committee and the team management had an extensive meeting at the National Hockey Stadium in Lahore with a one-point agenda: Select the best possible combination for the Madrid qualifiers.

"We had e very useful meeting and all of us shared our ideas about the composition of the Pakistan team for the Olympic Qualifiers," said Musarrat. The meeting was held after an exhibition match between the Pakistan team probables and a veterans eleven which the current players won with an enviable ease.

Musarrat said that the PHF will take a couple of more days before announcing the team for Madrid. He said that the team will only be finalised after getting full-fledged input from the team management and the selection committee which will then go for approval of PHF President General Aziz Khan.

Pakistan are scheduled to leave for Madrid on February 23 and will play warm-up matches against Holland and Spain before taking on Canada in their opening match of the Olympic Qualifiers. Pakistan?s group also includes Asia Cup champions India, Malaysia, New Zealand and Belgium.

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