TNB start planning for next MHL

THE Malaysia Hockey League (MHL) season just ended, but many teams including title sponsors Tenaga Nasional have already started planning for the next tournament.
Tenaga, who lifted the Charity Shield, finished second in the League and third in the TNB Cup, will ‘lose’ some seasoned players and are looking to inject more youth to their side.
And Tenaga coach, former national skipper Nor Saiful Zaini, also feels there should be a cap to the number of foreigners per-team.
“Just as the bronze medal playoff final whistle was blown, I started planning for the next season and I hope other teams are also doing the same.
“This year, there were too many foreign players in certain teams because they did not plan for the future, but hastily tried to source for local players weeks before the MHL.
“Naturally, all the good players were already snapped up, and they were left with no choice but to hire foreign players in big numbers,” said Nor Saiful.
And he feels it did not serve the purpose: “Teams with more than five foreign players did not benefit the Malaysian hockey scene, while I personally feel those who had five or less foreign signings, did much better in terms of parting knowledge to the local players while competing,” said Nor Saiful.
Tenaga did not sign any foreign players, as they prefer to field their employees.
“We will be losing seasoned players M. Kaliswaran and Tajol Rosli (both employees) as they feel that they have contributed enough and it is time for the youth to take their place.
“And we will be looking for more local youth and not foreign players, because that is our policy,” said Nor Saiful.
Yayasan Negri Sembilan and Nur Insafi were made up of more than 70 percent foreign players, but they still failed to land any of the three trophies in the MHL.