Daily Times

LAHORE: Former Pakistan captain Mansoor Ahmed has been appointed as manager of the national junior probables’ training camp while three other former skippers have been inducted in the coaches’ panel. Joining the former goalkeeper are Mohammad Usman, Rehan Butt and Mohammad Saqlain on the four-man coaching panel. The trials to select the probables will be conducted in Mardan, Lahore and Karachi simultaneously on July 27 and 28. “A separate selection panel has also been announced for each centre, the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) said on Wednesday. “Players born on or after Jan 1, 1998 are eligible to appear in the open trials,” a PHF press release stated. The new set up of the manager and coaches is not announced with any specific assignment ahead.

“Our under-18 players have already been in Australia on a six-month long training tour for the last three months. The PHF wants to raise another junior team, so, this new management is announced with no specific assignment decided for it at yet,” PHF secretary Shahbaz Ahmed said. “There is no head coach and all three coaches are included in a panel of coaches, having equal status.” The PHF has to raise a squad for the next Junior World Cup, which is to be held in 2020. Last time all investment on junior team was wasted since Pakistan failed to compete at the competition held in India.

According to the schedule, the players belonging to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Islamabad are to appear in the Mardan trials. A three-member selection panel comprising Imtiaz Afridi, Imran Khan, Ehsanullah and Shaukat All will pick the best probables for the camp. At the Johar Town Stadium in Lahore, Imran Butt along with Tahir Zaman and Maqsood Hussain will select the trainees. Meanwhile, the players from Sindh and Balochistan will be selected by the panel of Qamar Ibrahim, Mohammad Ali and Mohammad Anees for the trials to be conducted in Karachi.

Published in Daily Times, July 27^th 2017.