D-Day for Junior squad

25/09/2001

THE National Juniors will know who goes Down Under today when theMalaysian Hockey Federation Selection Committee meet at the NationalHockey Stadium in Bukit Jalil to name the final squad for the Junior WorldCup in Hobart, Australia, on Oct 9-21. Few surprises are expected in the final list as core players in the teamhave been consistent and are sure bets for Hobart. And tomorrow, those who are selected will head for Port Dickson for afour-day motivational camp and frolicking on the beach will be upmost onthe agenda as they psyche up for the World Cup. Skipper Chua Boon Huat, who had a good outing in the recent playing Tourof India, will surely wear the armband in Hobart where Malaysia are inGroup D with Argentina, Germany and New Zealand. M. Jiwa, Azlan Misron, Fairus Ismail, Tajol Rosli Mohamed and ZaharinZakaria, who all scored in the India Tour, also look good and theSelection Committee will not have a difficult time placing their names onthe list. In Hobart, Malaysia open their campaign against New Zealand on Oct 10and meet Argentina the next day before the final cruncher against Germanyon Oct 13 to see who top the table in the group. For the first time the Junior World Cup has been expanded to involve 16countries, and the FIH has allocated teams to four pools for the firstround. The top-two teams in each group will meet in the second round. Australiawon the last World Cup in 1997 in Milton Keynes and look set to top GroupA with only England expected to trouble them in the early round. Group A: Australia, Chile, England, Ireland. Group B: France, South Korea, Holland, South Africa. Group C: Canada, India, Scotland, Spain. Group D: Malaysia, Argentina, Germany, New Zealand.

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