LAHORE: The Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) on Monday announced a ten-member national squad for the inaugural Five-A-Side tournament being held in Lausanne on June 4-5.

       According to a press release issued by the PHF, former Olympians Rehan Butt and Waqas Sharif will accompany the team as head coach and coach, respectively.

       “The trials were organised by the PHF for the five-a-side hockey tournament starting on June 4 in Lausanne, Switzerland. Later, on the basis of performance, the selection committee announced a ten-member squad after the approval of PHF president retired Brig Khalid Sajjad Khokhar,” the press release stated.

       Interestingly, the PHF did not name the selection committee members who witnessed the trials.

       It may be mentioned here that the PHF with the consent of head coach Seigfried Aikman — and bypassing the selection committee — had announced the national squad for the April-May tour to Europe. The reaction of the national selection committee on this has not come in public.

       Besides Pakistan and hosts Switzerland, India, Poland and Malaysia are competing in this tournament, which is the first of its kind.

       The national hockey squad will leave for Lausanne on June 2 to participate in the event which was to be held in September 2021 but was deferred due to Covid-19.

       Squad: Waqar Younis (goalkeeper), Ehtesham Aslam, Aqeel Ahmed, Mohammad Murtaza Yaqoob, Tazeem-ul-Hassan (captain), Arshad Liaqat, Hassan Amin, Abuzar, Abdul Rehman, Mohammad Shahzeb.

       Published in Dawn, May 17th, 2022