Karachi, July 29 (IANS) Pakistan’s hockey selectors Thursday ignored veteran drag-flick ace Sohail Abbas for the preliminary squad for this year’s Commonwealth Games in Delhi and Asian Games in Guangzhou, China.
A 25-man provisional squad was named by the national selection committee for a series of training camps ahead of the two major events.
The seasoned defender, who holds the record for the highest number of goals in international hockey, apparently paid the price for skipping a training camp earlier this summer.
However, Pakistan’s chief selector Hanif Khan tried to make it clear that Sohail’s omission had nothing to do with his decision to skip the training camp.
‘We haven’t selected Sohail Abbas because we don’t need him any more,’ said Hanif, an Olympian. Hanif stressed that Pakistan has a number of youngsters capable enough to fill in for Sohail.
‘We have found some good young boys on our team’s Europe tour especially Muhammad Tauseeq who converted penalty corners in matches against Holland and Spain earlier this month,’ said Hanif.
Meanwhile, Sohail who recently returned home from Dhaka after featuring in the Bangladesh League is featuring in the Quaid-e-Azam Gold Cup Hockey Tournament – a major domestic event – in Karachi. He has been in prolific form, scoring four goals in two matches in the event so far.
Preliminary squad: Salman Akbar (Lahore), Imran Shah (HBL), Zeeshan Ashraf (NBP), Muhammad Imran (Army), Muhammad Irfan (PIA), Waseem Ahmad (WAPDA), Muhammad Rashid (Navy), Fareed Ahmad (HBL), Muhammad Tauseeq (NBP), Kashif Javed (NBP), Rehan Butt (WAPDA), Shakeel Abbasi (SSGC), Abdul Haseem Khan (NBP), Shafqat Rasool (PIA), Muhammad Rizwan (Army), Muhammad Waqas (WAPDA), Muhammad Umar Bhutta (HBL), Imran Butt (PIA), Muhammad Khalid Bhatti (HBL), Tasawar Abbas (Police), Abdul Ghaffar (Customs), Waqas Akbar (PIA), Muhammad Zubair (PIA), Shahbaz Ali (HBL) and Mohsin Bilal (PQA).
