Division One race wide open

11/03/2003

THE MHF-Milo-Admiral-NSC Junior Hockey League takes a break for the Azlan
Shah Cup on March 22-30 and resume again on April 4.
But after last week's action a familiar pattern is beginning to take
shape.
In Division Two, only two teams - Malacca Municipal Council and Sports
School Juniors with 24 points each - are in the running for promotion,
while third-placed SM Datuk Taha is a distant 17 points behind.
In Division One, the race for the title was thrown wide open when Pahang
Telekom and Tenaga Nasional drew 1-1. Now, four teams - Tenaga, Pahang,
Malaysia Sports School and Anderson-Xybase are tied on 13 points after six
matches.
During the break, the MHF will be calling up 20 boys for Test matches
against the Unites States national team.
"MHF talent scouts have been watching the JHL with keen interest and
have identified 20 players to train for the US Test matches," said MHF
special projects manager Poon Fook Loke.
The JHL teams this year, according to Poon and his scouts, are still
relying heavily on back-passes and rarely get the ball upfront for their
strikers to score.
"Overall though, some of the teams have shown tremendous improvement,
but the pattern is still the same - when the players get cornered, they do
not move forward but make a backpass which is sometimes very dangerous,"
said Fook Loke.
For the US Test matches, Poon is of the opinion that the players should
be allowed to show off their skills and not play like robots.
"We need to have intelligent players for the national pool and the only
way is to let them practice their stick-work and not rely on strategies
planned by their coaches. I feel that the juniors will grow up into better
hockey players if they are not restricted," said Poon.
Tenaga Nasional and Pahang Telekom are among the teams which allow their
players to "enjoy hockey" and it has reaped results.
Tenaga's Kelvinder Singh, S. Bubalan, S. Selvaraju and Abbas Nekmat have
been having a field day under coach K. Rajan and their confidence has
grown.
It is very likely that the four players will be among those called up
for the US Test matches in Ipoh on March 24, 26 and 29.
(END)