KUALA LUMPUR, April 14 — The Malaysian Hockey Confederation (MHC) has challenged the national men’s hockey squad that they must advance to the semi-finals of the Asian Cup in Jakarta, Indonesia from May 23 to June 1.
Its president Datuk Seri Subahan Kamal believes that the ‘Malaysian Tigers’ team can achieve the target and guarantee an automatic slot in the 2023 Men’s World Cup Hockey Championship scheduled to take place in Bhubaneswar and Rourkela, India, from January 13-29 next year.
Subahan said the target was realistic following the latest position of A. Arul Selvaraj’s squad, which emerged as Asia’s second-best team behind India.
“Must (qualify for the semi-finals)… on paper, we must be in the semis and need to be in the World Cup.
“That is the KPI (key performance indicator) set for Arul and his team, it shouldn’t be an issue because we are confident they can finish in the top four and qualify for the World Cup,” he said in a press conference at the breaking of fast ceremony with the national squad here, yesterday.
Meanwhile, Subahan said MHC was very satisfied with the performance displayed by the National Women’s Special Project Squad despite finishing 11th out of 16 teams in the Women’s Junior Hockey World Cup in Potchefstroom, South Africa, recently.
He also pointed out that there were outsiders who were impressed and surprised by the talent of the national players in the tournament.
“Very satisfied but a little upset because we were placed in a group of death with Germany and India who qualified for the semi-finals.
“I’m sure we can reach the top eight if placed in another group but we accept the result because it helped the girls to gain experience,” he added.
The national team, which was eliminated from the group stage with a draw and two losses, took the 11th best position after a 7-2 win over Zimbabwe in the 11th and 12th place play-offs last Monday.
Malaysia then managed to grab their first win of the tournament by beating Uruguay 2-1 in the ninth to 16th place play-off last Thursday, but lost 1-2 to Ireland in the ninth to 12th place classification action, on Saturday.
— Bernama
