MHL Premier Division extends registration deadline; Pakistani player Sohail Abbas offered place in team
Teams in the Malaysian Hockey League Premier Division are still hunting for top players, as a result of which the closing date for registration of players has been extended to next Friday.
Kuala Lumpur Hockey Club (KLHC) has offered Sohail Abbas from Pakistan a place in the team; confirmation from Abbas is expected on Monday. Abbas was the player who scored the first goal in the final of the 2010 Asian Games, in
which Malaysia lost to Pakistan 2-0.
Sapura, Universiti Kuala Lumpur (UniKL), KLHC and Nur Insafi have all confirmed their foreign players, while Yayasan Negeri Sembilan (YNS) are still holding negotiations with Indian players as well as former Indian national hockey
coach Harendra Singh. Harendra resigned from his post as coach after India’s failure to win a gold medal at the 2010 Asian Games. YNS are interested in recruiting Deepak Thakur and Prabhjot Singh of India, and Shakeel Abbasi of Pakistan. They are also said
to have registered two junior players from India as well as two Bangladeshi players who played in the recent Asian Games.
Foreign players recruited by Sapura include Rehan Butt of Pakistan, South Korea's Lim Woo-Geun and Welsh second-choice keeper David Kettle.
Nur Insafi have brought together a long array of players from India and Pakistan, including Ramesh Kumar, Abdul Asim Khan, Imran Khan Yusufzai, Prem Kumar, Bikash Toppo, Shabbir Ahmad Khan, Kashif Ali, Vivek, Veerachamy Raja and
Jitendra Saroha.
UniKL are looking to hire four foreign players, including New Zealand’s goalkeeper Steve Graham and defender Richard Patrick as well as Germany's Philipp Stahr and Kevin Lim (whose father is Malaysian). UniKL have also hired Kiwi
Darren Smith as coach of the team.
The teams which will solely rely on local talents include Tenaga Nasional, Maybank, Armed Forces and Universiti Teknologi MARA.
Bukit Jalil Sports School will play Universiti Sains Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur today, and will be hoping to compensate for their 2-0 defeat to Armed Forces Juniors in Division One of the MHL.
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