Pak hockey team leaves for Azlan Shah on Tuesday

Lahore, June 11 (UNI) An 18-member Pakistan hockey squad will leave for Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday to take part in the Sultan Azlan Shah hockey tournament which starts on June 18.

The squad has its final training session at Hockey Club of Pakistan Stadium in Karachi today.

Led by half-back Muhammad Saqlain, Pakistan will take on the Netherlands on June 19 in their opening match of the eight-nation tournament.

Pakistan are drawn in Pool ''B'' along with Argentina, the Netherlands and New Zealand in the week-long championship. Pool ''A'' has Olympic Champions Australia, India, South Korea and Malaysia.

Except for hosts Malaysia, all the other seven teams are taking part in the World Cup Hockey to be held in Monchengladbach, Germany, in September.

''Azlan Shah Cup will give us good build-up for Champions Trophy,'' coach and manager Asif Bajwa was quoted as saying by a news agancy.

''We eagerly looking forward to the Azlan Shah Cup and boys are keen to give their best. It would help us to make experiments, try new players and adopt different strategy,'' he added.

Pakistan will also feature in the Champions Trophy to be held in Terrassa, Spain, in July before the World Cup.

Pakistan squad: Goalkeepers: Salman Akber, Nasir Ahmed Full backs: Muhammad Imran, Imran Ali Warsi, Ihsanullah Khan.

Half backs: Muhammad Saqlain (Captain), Ghazanafar Ali, Dilawar Hussain, Adnan Maqsood, Sajjad Anwar Forwards: Rehan Butt, Mudassar Ali Khan (Vice Captain), Shakeel Abbasi, Saleem Khalid, Muhammad Shabbir, Akhtar Ali, Waqas Akber and Waqas Sharif Standbys: M Zubair, Mustansar Shaikh, Naeem Akber, Yasir-ul-Islam, Shabbir Ahmed Khan Officials: Asif Bajwa (Manager/Chief coach), Rana Zaheer Ahmed (coach), Shahid Ali Khan (goal-keeper trainer), Faiz-ur-Rehman (Physio), Nadeem Bhatti (Video Analyst) UNI XC PDS DH KN1641