THE national hockey team has gone through the normal process of meeting up with the management and coaches after the Dublin Olympic Qualifier, and the consensus is to forget the failure and look forward to better days.Initially, there was talk that a group of disillusioned senior players wanted to quit the national team after the coaches report was submitted to the Malaysian Hockey Confederation (MHC) council on April 10.
However, all the issues have been clarified, and the players are back in training for the Azlan Shah Cup on May 24 to June 3 in Ipoh.
Team manager George Koshy said yesterday that after meeting MHC) president Tengku Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah, the players have started their Azlan Shah Cup train ing.
“Even before the coaches report was tabled at the MHC Council Meeting, Tengku Abdullah had wanted to meet the players.
“And after I met them, and the coaches (Tai Beng Hai and Nor Saiful Zaini) spoke to the players, Tengku Abdullah met them and had a healthy discussion.
“The mandate was to forget the Dublin failure and con centrate on the task at hand -- which is the Azlan Shah Cup,” said George Koshy.
The manager also clarified that no player has withdrawn from the team.
“Azlan Misron did indicate that he wanted a break and would like to skip the Azlan Shah Cup. However, after listening to all parties, he was back in training today (yesterday).
“The only player who has indicated strongly that he wants to quit is Madzli Ikmar, but I am going to have a chat with and see where it goes.
“Otherwise, 95 per cent of the players called-up for training have reported, while a few of them are with the Project 2013 side and also busy with their studies,” said George.
The Project 2013 will be involved with the Junior Asia Cup on May 3-13, which also doubles up as the Junior World Cup Qualifier.
The Azlan Shah Cup will be a seven team event with Malaysia the only team not qualified for the Olympics. The Olympics cast is Pakistan Great Britain, South Korea, New Zealand, Argentina, India.
