Terengganu, Pahang the surprise packages

THE Razak Cup, which is the country's second oldest hockey tournament, saw some exciting results in its 49th edition with champions Kuala Lumpur tested to the limit before claiming their 19th title with a golden goal on Thursday.
Division One runners-up Pahang and third-placed Terengganu were the revelations of the tournament, as they came close to creating history.
Pahang were spearheaded by former national player Ismail Abu, who was aptly named the Division One Player of the Tournament, and he is now looking forward to receiving a national call-up.
"The feeling is mixed as I was named Player of the Tournament, but I failed to help Pahang win their first Razak Cup title.
"We were close, very close, and now I hope to don national colours again. It has been a while since I was in the national team and I hope to get my place back. The national coaches and selectors were here, so hopefully my performance will help my cause," said Ismail.
He was dropped from the national team in October 2009 before the World Cup qualifiers in Invercargil, New Zealand, after playing truant during centralised training.
Ismail also scored 17 goals for Kuala Lumpur Hockey Club in the Malaysia League.
Pahang, void of national players, will host the Malaysia Games next year and have nine Razak Cup players eligible to spearhead their challenge.
Terengganu also paraded youngsters, and will have 12 players from the Malacca tournament eligible for the Malaysia Games.
In Division Two, Negri Sembilan's title effort came with promotion to Division One next year, and their coach S. Chandran hopes the Malaysian Hockey Federation (MHF) will do away with qualifiers next year.
"First of all, national players always have a tight calendar and this year they were unable to help some teams during the second leg of the qualifier. This resulted in some of them dropping to Division Two.
"I hope MHF will do away with the qualifier which was not only a waste of time but also made the Razak Cup more expensive to compete in," said Chandran.
Negri spent RM35,000 and received RM5,000 for the gold medal.
The tournament saw teams play five matches in six days and it did look like KL and Pahang players could have done much better if they had been given a rest day after the semi-finals, and not forced to play another highly charged match the next day.