Pakistan’s hockey star Rehan Butt will make his entrance in the Malaysia Hockey League next month when he turns out for Sapura in the Premier Division.
Rehan Butt has good record over 2-0 win against Malaysia when he scored the second goal in Asian Games 2010 at Guanhou China.
South Korean defender Lim Woo-geum and England’s David James Kettle will join the Pakistani for the new season as Sapura turn to foreign players to organize
their title challenge.
Former double champions Sapura lost to Tenaga Nasional in the final for the overall title. Apart from the foreign players, Sapura have also hired I.Vicknesweran
as their coach.
Last year Vicknesweran had been the coach of the Universiti Kuala Lumpur team which was ranked on sixth position in the league.
Sapura also have a number of national players in their ranks, like penalty corner specialist and skipper S. Kuhan, brothers Jiwa and Jivan Mohan, Izwan Firdaus,
Azreen Rizal Nasir and Mohamed Marhan Mohamed Jalil.
Vicknesweran said that although the target was to go all the way to the title, “We’d rather take it one match at a time”.
“I believe that the league this time around will be tough, with most teams having started their preparations early,” said Vicknesweran, who will be assisted
by K. Balakrishnan.
“Yes, we have three foreign players in the list but we are still sorting out their working permits. So, we are not sure when they will arrive.”
Sapura are among nine teams who will take part in the Premier Division, which will begin on Dec 17.
The other teams are Tenaga Nasional, Maybank, KL Hockey Club, Universiti Kuala Lumpur, Nur Insafi, Armed Forces, UiTM and Yayasan Negri Sembilan (YNS).
While YNS are newcomers to the Premier Division, the Armed Forces and UiTM were promoted after finishing champions and runners-up of Division One last year.
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