Selwyn Maister not in N.Z. team

Press, 20 December 1978, Page 38

Selwyn Maister not in N.Z. team

KEVIN TUTTY

Bi

The international hockey career of Selwyn Maister, a stalwart of the New Zealand team for 13 years, appears to have come to a quiet end.

Maister was not among a squad of 20 named yesterday for a training week-end in Palmerston North from February 23 to 25, after which the team to play in the Perth international tournament in April ■will be named. Maister is one of three noticeable absentees from the squad. The other two, Greg Dayman and Jeff Archibald from Auckland, like Maister, were members of the Montreal gold medalwinning team in 1976. The squad is: Paul Ackerley, Balvantj Bhana, Mark Burtt, George Carnoutsos, Alan Chesney, John Christensen, Jeff Gibson, Tony Ineson, Graeme Sligo (Canterbury); Kevin Cassin, Peter Daji, Trevor Laurence, Maurice Marquet, Arthur Parkin, Mohan Patel, Ramesh Patel (Auckland); Peter and Brent Miskimmin (Wellington); Barry Thorne (Northland); Les Wilson (Wanganui). Maister, aged 32, said last evening that he was not asked whether he was available for the tournament, and he would not comment on whether his exclusion from the squad meant the end of his long international career.

But one can assume that with the number of young players included in the squad, and the coach, Brian Maunsell’s contentedness with the team he took to Lahore, Pakistan, last month, that Maister, Archibald and Dayman have been dropped, and it is most unlikely they will fight their way back into the national team for the Moscow Olympics. Archibald and Barry Maister, who was not available for Perth, are the only two

members of the team to play in Lahore not included in the squad. Those brought in are Paul Ackerley, Carnoutsos, John Christensen and Graeme Sligo from Canterbury, Peter Daji and Mohan Patel (Auckland). Christensen and Ackerley have been recalled to the squad after being unavailable for the Lahore tournament,

but Daji is in a New Zealand squad for the first time. Last year Daji was a member of the New Zealand colts team, but he is not a regular member of the Auckland A team. He is a forward who can play equally well on the right-wing or at centre-forward.

There are three goal-keep-ers in the squad. This has been a problem position since Montreal, when Trevor Manning’s knee was broken. Sligo, who missed the Lahore trip, must, stand a good chance of making the Perth team because of the mediocrity of the goal-keeping in Pakistan.

Wellington, the national champion, has reason to be upset that it has only two players in the squads — Peter and Brent Miskimmin — both of whom played in Pakistan.

Three others who played in the trials to select the Pakistan team must have been

unlucky not to make the final squad. They are Hus and Chuni Bhikha and Wayne Buckingham. The selectors also obviously consider Phil Benfield, one of the outstanding full-backs at the national tournament in the last two years, past his best.

The New Zealaned defence at Lahore left much to be desired. Hopefully it can be tightened, but it will be a hard job with the loss of Selwyn Maister and Dayman, and the potential of Benfield, Buckingham and Hus Bhikha.