PHF announces 18 member squad for Asia Cup

KARACHI: Pakistan hockey team chief selector, Islahuddin on Monday announced 18-member squad for 18th Asian games slated to start from 20 August in Jakarta and Palembang, Indonesia.

Islahuddin while briefing to the media here at Islahuddin hockey academy said that seeing the team’s performance improved under the captaincy of Rizwan Senior, he has been given a chance to keep on leading the men in green.

The other team members include Imran Butt (Goal Keeper), Amjad Ali, Irfan Jr, Mubashir, Faisal Qadir, Rashid, Amad Shakil Butt, Tasawar Abbas, Umer Bhutta, Shafqat Rasool, Touseeq, Aijaz, Abu Bakar, Ateeq Arshad, Ali Shan, Dilbar and Junaid Manzoor.
However, Mazhar, Aleem Bilal, Rizwan Jr and Rana Sohail will remain on standby.

On the other hand, former Olympian, Islahuddin applauded the efforts of the newly appointed Head coach, Roelant Oltmans who worked day in and day out to gradually put the things on to the right track.

“Roelant is something good happened to Pakistan hockey in a time when the game was in serious crisis and he did a great job in Champions Trophy and Commonwealth games,” Islah said.

Islah, on the other hand, congratulated the former cricketer Imran Khan who is likely to form a government and hopes that sports will progress in the country during his presence at the premiership office.

He quickly added that the PHF is working to sort out the solutions to different problems and it will take time to get things into the right shape.

“You can’t change the things overnight, what we are looking at is to make the infrastructure proper and hopefully we will do exactly what we have planned,”
Pakistan team will start their Asian Games campaign taking on Thailand on 20 August. The tournament final is scheduled on September 1.