President Hockey XI named for Hockey Series Open

LAHORE: Chief selector, former hockey Olympian Islahuddin Siddiqui, on Friday announced the 18-member Pakistan team for the Hockey Series Open, scheduled for December 17-22 here at the National Hockey Stadium.

The Hockey Series Open is an International Hockey Federation (FIH) event and the four nations competing are Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Nepal, said a spokesman of the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) here.

Since Pakistan has been selected for the FIH Pro-League, the high profile new event starting from early 2019, the Pakistan side here is not the national side and it will enter as the President XI.

"Importantly, the matches played by the President XI against other sides will only be considered friendly games and will not carry any points in the event," he said.

The other four sides will be competing against each other in real terms.

President XI: Goal Keepers: Muneebur Rehman and Hafiz Umair Defenders: Abid Bhatti, M Ammar, Samiullah and Mubashar Jibran Midfielders: Usman Ghani, Mohibullah, Ali Raza (Gojra) and Asif Hanif.

Forwards: Zaheer Hussain, Abdul Mannan, Murtaza Yaqoob, Awaisur Rehman (Captain), Qamar Bhukhari, Arsalan Haider, Zulqarnain and Mohsin Khan.

President PHF Brig (rtd) Khalid Sajjad Khokhar has named the following officials for the President XI.

Manager: Shahid Parvez Bhandara.

Coaches: Kashif Jawad and Muhammad Shabbir.