Hockey: No more experiments in the team says selection committee

Hockey chief selector says only performers to be selected.

KARACHI:

Experiments in Pakistan hockey are over and the Australia-bound squad will be chosen based on the players’ performance, according to the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) selection committee.

The committee, headed by Hanif Khan, will assemble on October 10 at the training camp underway in Islamabad to oversee the trials of probables with the squad for back-to-back tournaments to be announced the same day.

Twenty-five players are attending the training camp at Naseer Bunda Stadium and Hanif said that experience will not be the sole criterion.

“There will be no further experiments,” Hanif told The Express Tribune. “With the Champions Trophy just a couple of months away, we’re now at a stage to finalise a pool of players for the bigger tasks including the 2012 London Olympics.

“Experience is not the only criteria in team selection. The players, who perform well in the camp and trials, will get the nod,” he said before adding that the squad for the Australia tour could be retained for the Champions Trophy and the Olympics ‘barring inevitable circumstances’.

Meanwhile, the Pakistan junior team for the first edition of the Sultan Johor Hockey Tournament will be announced on October 15 following trials at the Hockey Club of Pakistan in Karachi.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 7^th, 2011.