More assignments ahead

27/03/2002

THE MALAYSIAN Hockey Federation (MHF) and the National Sports council
(NSC) met yesterday and came out with an impressive list of tournaments
for the national team as well as plans to inject new blood into the sport.
With generous funding from the NSC, the national players will be heading
for the Panasonic Cup in Hamburg on June 14-16.
"And since the team is already in Europe, we have decided to go on a
tour of Belgium, England, Holland and Germany before the Panasonic Cup,"
said MHF deputy president Tan Sri P. Alagendra yesterday.
Then there is the tour of Korea, Four-Nation in Australia, Test matches
in Kuala Lumpur and the new Asian tournament in Pakistan to look forward
to.
In short, MHF and NSC have left no stone unturned to prepare the team
for the Asian Games in September.
The new Asian tournament came about after FIH failed to recognise Asia's
contribution in the sport and some of the Asian countries hardly got any
invitations to play in Europe.
"Pakistan will host the first tournament on Dec 17-22 and the countries
involved are the hosts, India, Malaysia, South Korea and Japan.
"After that, the annual tournament will be held on a rotation basis
among the five top Asian countries," said MHF secretary S. Satgunam.
What about the rest of the Asian countries?
"The Asian Hockey Federation has pondered on the matter and have agreed
to host a similar tournament for the second echlon of hockey playing
countries in Asia. The format and dates will be decided soon," said
Satgunam.
The talent scouting programme, which started in January this year,
received lukewarm response in Kelantan and Terengganu but coach Paul
Lissek has managed to identify 30 potential players and will be looking
for more in April.
"From April 1, I will be conducting talent camps in Johor, Negri
Sembilan, Selangor and Kuala lumpur after which I hope to identify 40
youngsters for the centralised training on April 18-21 in Kuala Lumpur,"
said Lissek.
Those who are selected in the programme will be based at the Bandar
Penawar Sports School and their progress will be monitored. A host of
other plans were also formulated to train the Under-18 and Under-19
players in preparation for the 2005 Junior World Cup.
Yesterday, it was also decided that Lissek will get the opportunity to
re-group the national players playing in the Malaysia Hockey League (MHL)
to keep them on their toes.
"The national team will train twice a week under me beginning April 22.
After that, there will be three-day centralised camps every week to
prepare for the Asian Games.
The MHL managers have agreed to release the players for tours and Tests,
but they have yet to agree to the training schedule formulated yesterday,
but Alagendra was optimistic that the MHL team managers will agree to it.
"I will hold a special meeting with the managers involved in the MHL and
get a consensus for the betterment of hockey," said Alagendra.
Lissek also agreed to lend a helping hand to the teams taking part in
the MHL this year.
"I volunteer my services to any team that is interested to train their
players during the MHL because this is a win-win situation where I can
keep an eye on the players and also lend them some technical support,"
said Lissek.
Of one particular interest to Lissek is Pakistan's Sohail Abbas who will
be playing for Bank Simpanan Nasional.
Sohail, easily the best penalty corner specialist in the world today,
was the joint top scorer in the Kuala Lumpur World Cup and Lissek hopes
that some of the national players can pick up the trade by watching him
train.
"I will be approaching him and if he agrees, I will include him in the
weekly national training so that we can learn more about his style in
executing penalty corners," said Lissek.
BSN are also banking on the deadly Sohail to land them the double this
year, but they will have to wait for two weeks after the start of the MHL
because Sohail has to sort out work commitments in Pakistan before coming
here.
jugjet@nstp.com.my
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