Asia

By Khalid Hussain

KARACHI: National hockey selectors on Saturday axed Pakistan captain Muhammad Sarwar from a list of 37 probables for the next month's Azlan Shah Cup in Ipoh (Malaysia) putting a big question mark on the international career of the veteran forward.


Sarwar, who has led Pakistan since former captain Ahmed Alam announced his retirement in 2001, has been out-of-form in a number of international events during last year - a poor patch that finally resulted in a drastic decision from the hockey bosses.

Apart from the decision to drop Sarwar, an experienced left-in who never really managed to fill the vacuum created by the exit of the legenday Shahbaz Ahmed, there weren't many notable omissions as the selectors kept faith in the old horses.

Though there were expectations that the selection committee might go for all-out changes in the national team probables following a disappointing show in the Asian Games - Pakistan's last international outing in 2002 - it seems that some of the senior players with a cloud over their fitness and form have been given another chance of proving their worth.

However, the selectors did not shy away from introducing some new faces to the camp that will get underway here at the Pakistan Steel Sports Complex from February 14.

A total of 14 new players will be seen in action in the camp that will be held in preparation for the 2003 Azlan Shah Cup starting in Ipoh from March 22. World champions Germany, India, Korea, New Zealand and hosts Malaysia are the other participating teams.

While Ahmed Alam, M. Qasim and Salman Akber were retained in the camp, two new goal keepers - Karachi's Nasir and Amanullah - were included in the list. The five were selected through separate trials conducted during the recently-concluded National Championship here at the UBL Sports Complex under the supervision of former Olympian Shahid Ali Khan.

There are no new faces among the six defenders selected but five of the 11 mid-fielders in the list will be attending the camp for the first time. They are Adnan Maqsood, Rahat Rehman, Atif Mushtaq, Shahid Waseem and Rana Asif.

The highest number of new inclusions come in the forward-line where seven of the 15 selected were not a part of the previous national senior camp. Shakeel Abbasi, Amir Sahi, Mukhtar Ahmed, Shafiqul Islam, Rizwan Butt, Zahid Afzal and Jameel are new entries.

The selection of new boys for the camp was carried out on the basis of the players' performance in the National Championship. While most of the new faces are young, there are a few aging players (like Amir Sahi) as well, a decision that raises the question of their utility in the camp training.

The final trials for an 18-member national team will be held in Karachi during the last week of this month. The squad is likely to leave for Malaysia by March 14. Before the Azlan Shah Cup, the Pakistanis will play a three test match series against Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur and Ipoh. Given under is the complete list of probables:

Goal-keepers: Ahmed Alam, Salman Akber, M. Qasim, Nasir, Amanullah

Full-backs: Sohail Abbas, Ali Raza, Tariq Imran, Zeeshan Ashraf, Asim Chohan and Amir Saleem

Half-backs: Ghazanfar, Dilawar Hussain, M. Saqlain, Imran Rasool, Adnan Maqsood, Rahat Rehman, Waseem Ahmed, Nadeem Iqbal, Atif Mushtaq, Shahid Waseem, Rana Asif

Forwards: Rehan Butt, Mudassar Ali Khan, Kashif Jawwad, Shakeel Abbasi, M. Aqeel, Javaid Iqbal, Amir Sahi, Mukhtar Ahmed, Shafiqul Islam, Rizwan Butt, Nadeem ND, Saleem Khalid, Zahid Afzal, Shabbir Hussain and Jameel.

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