LAHORE – Former captains Shakeel Abbasi and Wasim Ahmad were re-called in the 18-member hockey squad named for the tour of Europe after President PHF pardoned them and reduced their respective fines for taking part in an unsanctioned World Series Hockey in India.

The re-called players are a part of group of five players who have been pardoned on the compassionate grounds by the PHF
chief who took the decision on their appeals in the larger interest of national hockey, said Asif Bajwa at a news conference here on Thursday after a meeting of team management and the national selection committee with the President, PHF to ascertain Pakistan’s number seventh and last finish in the Azlan Shah Cup. Bajwa said the fines of Shakeel and Rehan have been reduced to rupees one hundred thousand from rupees one million while Wasim, Zeeshan Arshaf and Imran Warsi’s fines of Rs 2,50,000 have been brought down to Rs 50,000 each.
These players had an appearance before the President PHF and they sought apology for their act of taking part in an illegal hockey tournament and the President PHF pardoned them and cleared them for selection, he said. Remaining three players Mudassar Ali Khan, Tariq Aziz and Adnan Maqsood did not submit their appeals have been given ten-day time to submit them for a final decision to be taken by the President PHF.
Selectors have also re-called former captain M Imran who has gained fitness and form after being overlooked for poor performance.
Squad: Imran Shah, M Irfan, Syed Kashif Shah, M Khalid, M Imran, Sohail Abbas, Farid Ahmad, Rashid Mahmood, M Rizwan jr, M tauseeq, Wasim Ahmed,  M Waqas, Sahfqat Rasool, M Umer Bhutta, Shakeel Abbasi, Abdul Haseem Khan, Rizwan Sr, and Ali Shah.
He said the PHF had a marathon three hours session with the team management and the selectors to determine the causes that let the team down in Azlan Shah Cup besides keeping an eye on the tour of Europe and teams participation in Olympics.
Secretary PHF said Shabbir Khan, M Zubair and Imran Butt who were part of the team participated in Azlan Shah were axed from the tour of Europe for which team will leave on June 9.
He said a group of 13 players including veteran Rehan Butt have been invited to attend a back up training camp commencing today (Friday) under the watchful eyes of former Olympians Danish Kaleem and Anjum Saeed.
The back camp invitees are, M Zubair, Shabbir Khan, Imran Butt, Rehan Butt, M Atiq, Hammad Butt, M Arsalan, M Irfan, Salim Nazim, Muzammal Bhatti, Zohaib Khan and Dilbar Hussain.
“The objective of this camp is to keep the players in proper trim and to find replacements for the team, if needed, for Olympics after the tour of Europe”, he said adding “ we strongly believe through this useful exercise we will be able to remove the flaws of players and to improve their technique”, he asserted.
To a question, the current team management will work till the Olympics and there would be not change in it.