‘PHF should take notice of differences between selectors, team management’

KARACHI: The national selection committee is under immense pressure after the team’s poor performance in the recently concluded Sultan Azlan Shah Cup, during which they also lost 5-0 to India.

The green-shirts finished fifth in the seven-team tournament.

Questions are now being raised over the selection criteria as forward Owais-ur-Rehman — who had scored the winning goal for Pakistan against India in the final of the SAG Games last month — was not picked for the Malaysian tour.

Ehsanullah, who was the leading goal-scorer in the National Hockey Championship, was also overlooked for the tournament.

Haseem Khan may be a victim of a conflict between team manager Hanif Khan and selection committee members as he is also the nephew of Hanif.

Some other deserving players, who have been performing well in the domestic competitions, were also left out surprisingly.

Olympian Qamar, who has generally been less sharp in his criticism of the current PHF management as compared to the previous one, also spoke out of how some deserving players were ignored by the selection committee.

“The PHF should take notice and determine who is responsible for the team’s horrible performances when even a number of trials were held in all the provinces and a month-long training camp was also held,” Qamar said.

“Many deserving players were not selected,” he lamented.

The defeat at the hands of arch-rivals India has not gone down well with the hockey fraternity and the credibility of the national selection committee is facing a lot of questions.

“There were not much expectations from the national team and nobody was expecting them to lift the trophy or finish on the podium but the way the lost those four matches was painful to see,” he said.

He also criticised the team management for failing to handle the players’ fitness as many of them were seen exhausted during the matches, especially after the second quarter.

Another former player said that team’s coach Khwaja Junaid’s tactics were exposed as he failed to make his team fight during the matches.

“It was obvious that the selection committee members, the team management and even the PHF high officials were not on the same page even before green-shirts had gone to Malaysia,” he said.

“It is not only about the team’s performance in Sultan Azlan Shah Cup, the differences have been visible since Hanif Khan was appointed manager with Olympian Qamar Ibrahim named coach of the team. The latter resigned just two days after his nomination due to personal reasons,” he added.

“The PHF needs to take these issues seriously now as the team will play in the qualifying rounds of 2018 Hockey World Cup, later this year. If the situation does not improve then one cannot expect green-shirts to perform well,” he concluded.