MHC president Tengku Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah shares a light moment with the players yesterday. Pic by Yazit Razali
THE Malaysian Hockey Confederation (MHC) yesterday feted their juniors to a gala dinner, and rewarded each player and official with RM12,500 cash for becoming champions in the Junior Asia Cup in Malacca.
Malaysia not only beat Pakistan 2-1 for the gold medal, but also qualified for the Junior World Cup in New Delhi next November.
"This is the first time such a dinner is held to celebrate everyone's effort to realising this golden dream, and not only the players but also their parents were invited.
"I would like to say my special thanks to coach K. Dharmaraj and his coaching staff as well as team manager Mirnawan Nawawi and National Sports Council support staff who made this achievement," said MHC president Tengku Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah.
But realistically speaking Tengku Abdullah reminded everybody that: "We have 18 months to the World Cup, so we need to prepare from now and realise that our mission is only half-completed.
"I would like to introduce a report card to make sure that we do well in the World Cup as well. From tomorrow we need to take care of the boys physical fitness, as it was lacking during the India and Pakistan matches.
"And my advise to the players is also to keep away from anything that will derail their concentration, and keep steady towards achieving a good result in New Delhi," said Tengku Abdullah.
As for the future of hockey, Tengku Abdullah said ongoing programmes like 1Mas would be intensified.
"And with help from parents, more effort would be placed on under-12 players and also the national league would also be revamped to make the grassroot stronger," said Tengku Abdullah.
