Pak skipper to miss trials for Azlan Shah tourney

Lahore, Jun 1 (UNI) An eye infection will keep mercurial Pakistan captain Muhammad Saqlain out of the two-day hockey trials, which began today in Karachi for the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup in Kuala Lumpur.

The skipper, along with midfielder Ghazanfar Ali and defender Zeeshan Ashraf, who are also facing fitness problms, will not attend the trials being held to select the team for the eight-nation tournament from June 18 to 25 in Kuala Lumpur.

While Saqlain and Ghazanfar have been given direct entry to the 18-member team to be announced tomorrow, Ashraf might struggle to make it because of his hamstring injury, which is more serious then the other two players' fitness problems.

Saqlain, who was handed a three-match ban for hitting an opposition player, has been carrying the infection for the past one month but is expected to be fine for the event, while Ghazanfar has almost recovered from his broken right hand.

The Probables: Goal-keepers: Salman Akber, Nasir Ahmed, Muhammad Ali; Full-backs: Imran Ali Warsi, Imran Khan, Ihsanullah Half-backs: Dilawar Hussain, Imran Khan Yousufzai, Adnan Maqsood, Asim Khan, Sajjad Anwar, M. Javed Forwards: Rehan Butt, Kashif Yaqoob, Shabbir Ahmed Khan, Shakeel Abbasi, Akhtar Ali, Adnan Zakir, Naeem Akber, Mudassar Ali Khan, Yasir-ul-Islam, Waqas Akber, Waqas Sharif, Mustansar Shaikh, Muhammad Zubair, Muhammad Sami UNI XC PM AY VV1503