49th 100Plus Tun Abdul Razak Cup sets off today: Hockey News
The 49th edition of the Tun Razak Cup is all set to take place today, May 27 at the University Science Malaysia Hockey Stadium for north zone and at Ministry of Education Pitch, Kuala Lumpur for central zone in Malaysia. The first day will feature qualifier
matches for two of the participant zones North and Central.
Two teams that will top their respective zones, shall be added into the Division One, while the bottom two will play the Division Two that is to be held two months later in Malacca, starting from July 20-30.
This year’s edition has a new format that consists of two legs and five zones have made their participation, each comprising of four teams except for East Malaysia zone. Due to shortage, some foreign teams were also invited to meet up the count of teams
required. Singapore and Brunei are two of those that had received invitation to play the Razak Cup.
Due to shortage of players for the first leg of the tournament, Malaysian Hockey Federation (MHF) recently allowed 25 national level hockey players to appear in the home competition.
Penang Hockey Association Secretary, V. Jayanandhan stated about the unique format introduced to this event, this year that will be opened with matches played under zones.
He commented, "The Razak Cup tournament is the premier hockey competition in the country, but sadly it is slowly losing importance and popularity. So the Malaysian Hockey Federation (MHF) has come up with this format to make the competition relevant and also
popular among hockey enthusiasts, state associations and players.”
The MHF Secretary also revealed that the federation will pay RM 1,000 per game as subsidy, in case of the zone matches and further incentives worth RM 5,000 for teams, who make it into the Division One and RM 3,000 for those who advance into the Division
Two.
According to this, it would be the first time that the federation will make payment to both the groups to advance in the next leg.
The teams within the five zones include Penang, Kedah, Perlis and Armed Forces in north zone; Perak, Kuala Lumpur, Selangor and the National Under-16 team in central zone; Negri Sembilan, Malacca, Johor and Singapore in south zone, Kelantan, Terengganu, Pahang
and Police in east zone and Sabah, Sarawak and Brunei in the East Malaysia zone.
The return leg for Tun Razak Cup will be conducted from June 24-26 at the Sultan Abdul Halim Shah Hockey Stadium in Sungai Petani.
The matches have been scheduled to take place as follows:
NORTH ZONE (all matches at the USM Stadium)
May 27: Penang v Perlis, Armed Forces v Kedah
May 28: Penang v Armed Forces, Perlis v Kedah
May 29: Perlis v Armed Forces, Penang v Kedah
CENTRAL ZONE (All matches at the Ministry of Education Pitch)
May 27: Perak v Kuala Lumpur, Selangor v Project 2017
May 28: Kuala Lumpur v Project 2017, Selangor v Perak
May 29: Perak v Project 2017, Kuala Lumpur v Selangor
The results for the West Zone of this Cup will be considered under the Annual Borneo Cup, which will be used as an indication for the teams for Division One and Two to qualify for the final round in July.
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