Medal prospect looks

13/09/2002

THE national hockey team must return from the Asian Games with at least a
bronze medal, if not they will be deemed as a failure.
The Asian Games draw is very kind to Malaysia as they only need to beat
Bangladesh and China and they are already in the semi-finals. Pakistan are
the strongest side in the Malaysian group.
In Group B are seasoned campaigners India, Japan, South Korea and Hong
Kong.
But after the recent Five Test series in China, the prospect does not
look good for the men in yellow.
In fact, the slide started right after the Kuala Lumpur World Cup
earlier this year when a group of promising players called it a day.
Among the promising youth who have yet to show their true potential but
quit were Tajol Rosli Mohamad, S. Shankar and Zaharin Zakaria.
The seniors who called it a day were Mirnawan Nawawi, Maninderjit Singh,
Nasihin Nubli and Suhaimi Ibrahim.
Tajol, who is playing for Kuala Lumpur in the on-going Malaysia Games in
Sabah, said he will only make a national comeback in March next year after
completing his studies.
Defender Nor Azlan Bakar has also taken a year's leave to pursue
religious studies - leaving a young and inexperienced outfit for Asian
Games challenge.
The Malaysian Hockey Federation (MHF) will name the Games squad on
Friday but it is likely that the same players who went to China will
represent Malaysia in Busan.
In the five China Tests, where Malaysia scraped through 2-1 (two matches
were draws) the young side did not display much promise and the only
consolation was that all the goals were field attempts.
Which means, all the penalty corners went awash.
But it is said that Malaysia did not play their penalty corner
variations in the Tests because they did not want to reveal anything to
the Chinese.
And if the Chinese also hid some of their tactics, Malaysia are clearly
in trouble and can forget the bronze as the super fit Chinese - as
predicted by Pakistan legend Samiullah while in Kuala Lumpur to watch the
World Cup - are going to take the Asian Games by storm.
(END)