Malaysia’s National Hockey side looks to gain winning momentum in Japan test series
The Malaysia’s national senior men’s hockey team is looking to find their winning momentum prior to some of the major forth coming tournaments which include Asian Champions Trophy in Ordos, China, starting from September 3 along with the Olympic Qualifiers
which will be held later this year. The Malaysians will be looking to put their best efforts in the Asian Champions Trophy as they will face the challenge of top Asian side like South Korea, India and the Asian Games Champions Pakistan.
The current series against the Japanese national side, a team ranked at the 16th spot one place behind Malaysia on the FIH rankings, which is going to be started on August 7 at the National Hockey Stadium in Bukit Jalil, will be a good opportunity
for the Malaysian athletes to bring their efforts on the right track and develop them into a winning attitude.
For London Olympics there will be three qualifiers and in which group the Malaysian will fall that will only be decided after the Oceana Cup which will be played from October 5 to 9 and will feature Australia, New Zealand and Fiji.
Tai Beng Hai, the national chief coach, has also included Khairul Affendi, Hairi Rahman and Safiuddin Sahrom in the training squad on the recommendations of Shahid Ali Khan, the former Pakistan coach and a legendary goal-keeper along with two other changes
in the squad.
“Rashid (Baharom) withdrew and was replaced by Fitri Saari while the injured Azri Hassan was replaced with Amir Farid," Beng Hai stated about the changes.
The national training squad consists of the following players and for the series against Japan; the players will be selected from the given pool.
Azreen Rizal, Shahrun Nabil, Sukri Mutalib, Marhan Jalil, Nabil Fiqri, Tengku Ahmad Tajuddin, Faizal Saari, Izzat Rahim, Fitri Bakar, Shahrin Mohamad, Firhan Ashaari, Faiz Helmi, Razie Rahim, Baljit Singh, Madzli Ikmar, Amin Rahim, Izwan Firdaus, Kelvinder
Singh, Azammi Adabi, Azlan Misron, Hafifihafiz Hanafi, Amir Farid, Fitri Saari, S. Kumar (goal-keeper) and Roslan Jamaluddin (goal-keeper).
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