The national men’s indoor hockey team will need to play more quality matches in preparation for the 2025 World Cup in Croatia.
Malaysian Hockey Confederation (MHC) indoor hockey committee chairman Shurizan Mansor said this on arrival with the Asia Cup silver medal-winning team at Kuala Lumpur International Airport this morning.
“Firstly, we congratulate the team for qualifying for the Asia Cup final. By qualifying for the final, we also earned a ticket to the 2025 World Cup for the first time. It was a remarkable achievement,” added Shurizan, who is also vice-president of the national body.
“We will come up with a more structured and efficient training programme for the World Cup that includes matches against world-ranked teams. There are thoughts of inviting Namibia and South Africa for a triangular tournament or perhaps we will travel to these countries,” he added.
Namibia and South Africa emerged champions and runners-up respectively in the Africa Cup that concluded on May 26.
The Speedy Tigers were earlier given a grand welcome and greeted on arrival by MHC Vice-President Ganesan Shanmugam, who is also the Selangor HA President. Ganesan congratulated the players on their silver medal achievement.
He emphasised that a playing tour of Europe against top teams will serve as a crucial trial ground to expose the players to quality opposition.
“All these plans are subject to support from the MHC, the National Sports Council, and the Ministry of Youth and Sports to realise our aspirations. This team needs to play at least 30 quality matches in preparation for the World Cup. Take the Iranians for example. Most of their players compete in Europe and they are very organised,” he said.
“Indoor hockey is also gaining momentum here with a lot of universities introducing the game. I will propose to MHC of the need to introduce a national back-up squad. In the long-run we will have a big pool of young players to choose from for international tournaments. At the moment, there are none.” he stressed, adding that the Iranians have been training full time. Some of their players have been in the team for a long time.
“Our players are excited to get back on the road to the World Cup. We will introduce a new phase of training that will involve about 30 players, including the 12 who played in the Asia Cup. The World Cup is in February next year and those who perform in training and matches will be selected,” said Shurizan.
On the performance of the team in the final against Iran which the Malaysians lost 1-7, Shurizan said: “In the final we did not play as we did in earlier pool matches. There was a big difference in our performance in the 3-3 draw Group C second-stage competition match against Iran than in the final.
“My assessment is that the team could have peaked too early in the final. The Iranians came in full force from the start of the match and dominated,” he said.
