Pic: Kelvinder Singh gets a break Down Under against Australia and Netherlands.THE AZLAN Shah Cup will see seven teams, with Olympic hosts Great Britain being the highest ranked, battling it out on the country’s first blue pitch from May 24 to June 3.
And if Malaysia, ranked 13th, make the cut via the Olympic Qualifier in Dublin on March 10-18, the Azlan Shah Cup will be a fantastic tune-up as the Olympics will be held in July.
Among the Azlan Shah Cup invitees, Britain (fourth), New Zealand (seventh), Pakistan (eighth) and Argentina (ninth) have already qualified for the Olympics, while India (10th), Malaysia and South Korea (sixth) will be involved Qualifiers early this year.
The Olympics will also be held on a blue pitch, making the Azlan Shah Cup a much sought after invitation this year.
Malaysia, who just played a five-series friendlies with China, have trimmed the squad to 22 players, and will send 21 Down Under to play four friendlies with Australia and two with the Netherlands from Jan 29.
There were no surprises, as the only addition from the Champions Challenge I squad for the friendlies was Kelvinder Singh who replaced Azammi Adabi.
The rest are regular faces, while Azammi will return to the training squad when the players return from their Tour.
MALAYSIA -- S. Kumar Subramiam , Roslan Jamaluddin, Nabil Fiqri, Amin Rahim, Tengku Ahmad Tajuddin, Faizal Saari, Shahrun Nabil, Madzli Ikmar, Razie Rahim, Marhan Jalil, Sukri Mutalib, Baljit Singh, Hafifihafiz Hanafi, Azlan Misron, Izwan Firdaus, Azreen Rizal, Firhan Ashaari, Kevinder Singh, Fitri Saari , Amir Farid, Izzat Rahim.
