Pakistan Hockey – Men’s National Training Camp for Azlan Shah Cup commences in Islamabad
The National training camp for Pakistan’s Men’s hockey team will begin on April 1 at the Naseer Bunda Hockey Stadium in Islamabad. This is a preparatory camp for the forthcoming 20th Sultan Azlan Shah Cup in May.
The Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) has invited 31 players to attend this training camp that are Muhammad Ateeq, Muhammad Umar Bhutta, Imran Butt, Abdul Haseem Khan, Syed Kashif Shah, Muhammad Rizwan, Muhammad Irfan, Muhammad Zubair, Waqas Sharif, Kashif
Javaid, Imran Shah, Muhammad Imran, Sohail Abbas, Akhtar Ali, Muhammad Raashid, Ali Shan, Muhammad Imran, Mazhar Abbas, Shafqat Rasool, Rehan Butt, Muhammad Rizwan, Waseem Ahmed, Fareed Ahmed, Shakeel Abbasi, Waqas Akbar, Muhammad Tousiq, Khalid Bhatti, Muhammad
Irfan, Arsalan Qadir, Tasawwar Abbas and Zeeshan Ashraf.
Recently Pakistan’s team captain, Zeeshan Ashraf has refused to take part in the Islamabad training camp for the Malaysian Cup.
This decision was made because he wanted to create some space for the rising stars of tomorrow, the Pakistan hockey youngsters to get a chance to play the Azlan Shah.
The captain of the glorious 2010 Asian Games said, “I have informed the federation about my withdrawal from the event. The purpose is to give opportunities to the rising young talent which is what the team needs.”
Moreover, Ashraf recommended the PHF to consider Mohammad Imran, the vice captain, for the team captaincy in his place for the upcoming event.
Khawaja Junaid, the National team manager reported that the players, coaches and technical staff have reached at the venue for attending the camp. The officials will emphasise over the fitness of the players during the training. Later, the National squad
for the May tournament will be selected on the basis of their performance during the camp.
According to Khawaja, the selection committee has called for four young players who played in the Youth Olympics. Therefore, the Pakistan team will be a combination of both junior and senior players.
This training camp had actually been rescheduled on April 1 by the PHF. This announcement was made on March 28 after a few changes in plans by the PHF National Selection Committee (PHFNSC).
Previously, PHF had organised for trials in the Lahore National Stadium on March 26 for which 63 players were chosen from the February’s Bahawalpur National Championship. However, the selectors later managed to decrease the list of possible players to 31
on March 18 and cancelled the trials.
The squad chosen out of this camp will play in the Azlan Shah Cup, which is to be held from May 5 to 15 at the Sultan Azlan Shah Stadium in Ipoh, Malaysia. It will be interesting to see how the Pakistan team performs at the tournament.
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