Foreign players to represent Yayasan Negeri Sembilan in Malaysian Hockey League
Two-time Malaysian Hockey League (MHL) champions Yayasan Negeri Sembilan (YNS) will be playing this season with 11 foreign players on the squad.
“It is not that we want to field so many foreign players,” said YNS Assistant Manager, P. Tamilselvan, “but after all the top teams snapped up the local talent, we were left with little to select from.”
YNS, who won the MHL back in 1994 and 1995, have mostly hired players from Pakistan and India. The Pakistani players include Shakeel Abbasi, Muhammad Waqas and Muhammad Rashid. Indian players for YNS are Prabhjot Singh and Deepak
Thakur, and the team’s coach is P. Madhu Karan, the coach of India’s women’s hockey team.
Interestingly, Shakeel Abbasi and Muhammad Waqas took part in the 16th Asian Games and a played vital role in Pakistan’s final victory against Malaysia. Seventeen-year-old Muhammad Rashid, meanwhile, made his international
debut in last year’s Azlan Shah Cup.
“Our foreign signings have obligations back home now,” said Tamilselvan, “and will only be arriving next week. This gives us little time to train together, but with the vast experience the players have, I believe it is not going
to be a major problem.”
The Premier Division of the 2010 MHL is starting on December 17th. Nine clubs will compete for the title: Maybank, Armed Forces, Nur Insafi, Sapura, Tenaga Nasional, YNS, Universiti Kuala Lumpur (UniKL) and Universiti
Teknologi MARA (UiTM).
The YNS squad is comprised of Prabhjot Singh (GP), Mohamed Imran (GP), Vivek Gupta (GP), Hafifi Baharom (Gk), Muhammad Rashid (GP), Muhammad Waqas (GP), Muppidi Nagaraj (GP), Arvind (GP), Tarun Thammannah (GP, GK), Sabri Mohamed,
Mosiur Rahman (GP), S. Sarvaswaran, M. Rageswaran, Razlee Amree, Deepak Thakur (GP), Yazid Yusof, Redza Maadun, Shakeel Abbasi (GP), Meor Shahril, Zulfadli Mas Isa and Fitri Abu Bakar.
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