The Malaysian Hockey Confederation (MHC) have dissolved the men’s national senior and juniors’ teams following the end their contracts.
Speedy Tigers, under coach Arul Selvaraj, failed to qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympics, while the national juniors, coached by Amin Rahim, finished in 12th position out of 16 teams in the recent Junior World Cup held at the National Hockey Stadium in Bukit Jalil in November 2023.
“We want to rebuild both the teams. A fresh set of players will be selected after the Malaysia Hockey League (MHL), which ends on March 9,” said Malaysian Hockey Confederation (MHC) President Dato’ Seri Subahan Kamal at a press conference this morning.
“The national senior team’s next assignment is the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup in Ipoh (from May 4-11). They will also feature in the Nine-Nations Cup in Gniezno, Poland from May 31 to June 9,” he said.
“However, the national women’s team, coached by Nasihin Nubli, will not be disolved as they have a long-term programme until the 2026 Asian Games in Nagoya.
“However, should there be new players that impress the national coaches then they will be selected to join the national women’s team for competitions”.
He added that the contracts of all national men and women coaches have expired and the coaching committee will select a fresh set up of coaches as deemed fit.
“The head coach for the men’s national team will be finalised in one month’s time, and the coaching committee will go through the process of selecting the head coach and they will submit it to the MHC executive board.”
“The fresh set coaches will come up with their programmes for both the national men’s and women’s teams,” said Subahan, adding that he is disappointed that the Speedy Tigers failed to qualify for the Paris Olympics.
“Arul needs to submit the report of the team’s failure in the Olympics Qualifier in Muscat, Oman by this week, as the coaching committee headed by chairman Datuk Majid Manjit Abdullah will have a meeting this Sunday to discuss on the report.
“It is not easy to qualify for the Olympics as only 12 teams are allowed for the Games. And India is the only Asian country to feature in the Olympics. This shows that all other teams in Asia are not good enough to qualify for the Olympics.
“I am not giving excuses but FIH (International Hockey Federation) should re-look at the qualifying system for the Olympics and we want the Asian Hockey Federation (AHF) to push FIH to increase the number of teams to 16 like the World Cup,” said Dato’ Sri Subahan.
“One thing is for sure that our national men’s team needs to play as many matches as possible to have a solid team. Playing in the FIH Pro League is good for the team but it is very costly to compete in the league,” said Dato’ Sri Subahan.
