BANDAR Penawar Sports School-Thunderbolt will be beefed-up by seven seasoned Tenaga Nasional players in Division One of the Malaysia Hockey League (MHL) starting today.
Thunderbolt will be skippered by TNB employee Fairuz Hamsani, and the inclusion of experience in the schools side is expected to make them among the front-runners for the title.
“We have been training in Kuala Lumpur because of our collaboration with TNB (Thunderbolts) and with the in clusion of seven seasoned TNB employees, we hope to make an impact this season,” said Thunderbolt coach Wan Roslan Wan Rahman.
Rising from the Junior Hockey League, Thunderbolts will take on UniTen on Sunday.
In the JHL, they were denied glory when UNiKL shocked them 2-1 in the Overall final. Thunderbolts were the JHL League champions.
The Division One will see seven teams battling for honours and they are BJSS, Bukit Jalil Sports School, Ipoh City Council, Armed Forces Juniors, University Tenaga Nasional, University Sains Malaysia and Malacca City Council.
Today, BJSS will play against Armed Forces, and the schoolboys are touted to have an upper hand.
“Our target of playing in the MHL is to prepare a strong side for the JHL, and that is why we will be utilising all our players to give them maximum exposure,” said BJSS coach S. Prakash.
The Premier Division will begin on Dec 17.
DIVISION ONE -- FRIDAY: Ipoh City Council v UniTen (Azlan Shah Stadium, 5pm), Bukit Jalil SS v Armed Forces Jnr (Pantai Stadium, 5pm), Universiti Sains Malaysia v Malacca City Council (USM Stadium, 5pm).
SUNDAY: Ipoh City Council v Malacca City Council (Azlan Shah Stadium, 5pm), Bukit Jalil SS v Universiti Sains Malaysia (Pantai Stadium, 5pm), Bandar Penawar SS v UniTen (BPSS pitch, 5pm).
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Hero's welcome
Pakistani hockey player Rehan Butt is pictured with his family as he arrives from the Asian Games to Allam Iqbal International Airport in Lahore late on November 27, 2010. Pakistan celebrated their first Asian Games hockey gold in 20 years beating Malaysia 2-0 in the final in Guangzhou, China. The Asian Games win -- their eighth -- is their first major achievement since winning the World Cup in Australia in 1994.
Loads of money in MHL
THE Malaysia Hockey League (MHL) Premier Division has attracted nine teams, and with an attractive budget of about RM3.5 million, the matches are expected to be explosive.
Scheduled to start on Dec 17, the Premier Division will see regulars Tenaga Nasional, Sapura, KL Hockey Club, Maybank, Universiti Kuala Lumpur and Nur Insafi in action.
They will be joined by last year's Division One champions Armed Forces-Airod and runners-up UiTM while Yayasan Negri Sembilan (YNS) received a wild-card as they have promised to hire a string of foreign players.
Malaysian Hockey Federation (MHF) secretary Maninderjit Singh said: "The MHF will support teams by providing jerseys, transport, accommodation and we have even increased the prize money by RM80,000 this year to make the MHL more exciting."
But even with MHF providing the basics, teams must be prepared to fork out about RM500,000 if they want to be among the top four in the Premier Division.
UniKL, who made their debut in the Premier Division last year and finished last, had spent a total of RM500,000.
"We spent half a million for both JHL and MHL matches, but then, we did not have any star players or hired any foreign coach or players," said UniKL team manager Amir Azhar Ibrahim.
"The rough estimate for a team to have the bulk of the national players as well as a good coaching outfit is about RM600,000 just to play in the Premier Division." Maninderjit concurred with the estimate.
"It all depends on what the team want to achieve in the Premier Division. If you are looking at the top of the table teams who hire the best in the country and those who have foreign players, it could easily come to RM600,000 or more," he said.
"This is because some of the teams retain and pay their players for the whole year. But for those who only seal deals for the duration the league is on, it could be very much less, but then, the results are also hard to come by."
"The MHF has allowed Yayasan Negri Sembilan into the Premier Division this year because they have promised to secure at least six top foreign players.
"We have been made to understand that YNS will hire at least six foreign players but have yet to receive the final team list from them," said Maninderjit.
"The MHF should have a clearer picture when we receive the full team list on Dec 4 (Saturday) when the competition committee meets."
Scheduled to start on Dec 17, the Premier Division will see regulars Tenaga Nasional, Sapura, KL Hockey Club, Maybank, Universiti Kuala Lumpur and Nur Insafi in action.
They will be joined by last year's Division One champions Armed Forces-Airod and runners-up UiTM while Yayasan Negri Sembilan (YNS) received a wild-card as they have promised to hire a string of foreign players.
Malaysian Hockey Federation (MHF) secretary Maninderjit Singh said: "The MHF will support teams by providing jerseys, transport, accommodation and we have even increased the prize money by RM80,000 this year to make the MHL more exciting."
But even with MHF providing the basics, teams must be prepared to fork out about RM500,000 if they want to be among the top four in the Premier Division.
UniKL, who made their debut in the Premier Division last year and finished last, had spent a total of RM500,000.
"We spent half a million for both JHL and MHL matches, but then, we did not have any star players or hired any foreign coach or players," said UniKL team manager Amir Azhar Ibrahim.
"The rough estimate for a team to have the bulk of the national players as well as a good coaching outfit is about RM600,000 just to play in the Premier Division." Maninderjit concurred with the estimate.
"It all depends on what the team want to achieve in the Premier Division. If you are looking at the top of the table teams who hire the best in the country and those who have foreign players, it could easily come to RM600,000 or more," he said.
"This is because some of the teams retain and pay their players for the whole year. But for those who only seal deals for the duration the league is on, it could be very much less, but then, the results are also hard to come by."
"The MHF has allowed Yayasan Negri Sembilan into the Premier Division this year because they have promised to secure at least six top foreign players.
"We have been made to understand that YNS will hire at least six foreign players but have yet to receive the final team list from them," said Maninderjit.
"The MHF should have a clearer picture when we receive the full team list on Dec 4 (Saturday) when the competition committee meets."
Monday, November 29, 2010
BJSS go for young blood
BUKIT Jalil Sports School will field a young Division One side for the Malaysia Hockey League (MHL) in an effort to prepare a team for the Junior Hockey League (JHL) next year.
The MHL Division One tournament starts on Friday with seven teams battling for honours.
The top two qualify for the Premier Division quarter-finals, and also gain automatic entry into the higher division.
The seven aspirants this year are Ipoh City Council, Bandar Penawar Sports School, Bukit Jalil Sports School, Armed Forces Juniors, Universiti Tenaga Nasional, Universiti Sains Malaysia and Malacca Municipal Council.
BJSS will also be fielding budding 16-year-old Thung Wei Chia from Kelantan.
"Basically, 18 of my 20 players will be eligible to compete in the JHL next season and that is our end target. The school will be exposing many new young players so that they will be better prepared for the junior league," said BJSS coach S. Prakash.
BJSS open accounts against Armed Forces Juniors on Friday. The League ends on Feb 25.
The Premier Division of the MHL will start on Dec 17.
"We have a relatively good side but most of them lack exposure and that is why we are eager to see them in action in the MHL.
"Also, our Chinese payer Wei Chia has proved to become a promising defender, and the MHL will better prepare him to play in the JHL, just like the others," added Prakash.
The current national senior and junior teams do not have a single Chinese player with the last to represent Malaysian was Chua Boon Huat.
Wei Chia is also the only Chinese player listed in the seven-team MHL Division One tournament.
The MHL Division One tournament starts on Friday with seven teams battling for honours.
The top two qualify for the Premier Division quarter-finals, and also gain automatic entry into the higher division.
The seven aspirants this year are Ipoh City Council, Bandar Penawar Sports School, Bukit Jalil Sports School, Armed Forces Juniors, Universiti Tenaga Nasional, Universiti Sains Malaysia and Malacca Municipal Council.
BJSS will also be fielding budding 16-year-old Thung Wei Chia from Kelantan.
"Basically, 18 of my 20 players will be eligible to compete in the JHL next season and that is our end target. The school will be exposing many new young players so that they will be better prepared for the junior league," said BJSS coach S. Prakash.
BJSS open accounts against Armed Forces Juniors on Friday. The League ends on Feb 25.
The Premier Division of the MHL will start on Dec 17.
"We have a relatively good side but most of them lack exposure and that is why we are eager to see them in action in the MHL.
"Also, our Chinese payer Wei Chia has proved to become a promising defender, and the MHL will better prepare him to play in the JHL, just like the others," added Prakash.
The current national senior and junior teams do not have a single Chinese player with the last to represent Malaysian was Chua Boon Huat.
Wei Chia is also the only Chinese player listed in the seven-team MHL Division One tournament.
KL retain u-14 title
The Kuala Lumpur team celebrate after defending their title yesterday. — Picture by Asman IbrahimDEFENDING champions Kuala Lumpur subdued an aggressive Perak 2-1 to retain the MHF-NSC-Milo-MSSM Boys' National Under-14 hockey title at the Universiti Sains Malaysia Hockey Stadium yesterday.
Both sides enjoyed their share of early play without any result until in a goalmouth melee when Perak's Mohd Alif Faizal's took advantage of the situation to score past a fumbling Kuala Lumpur goalkeeper Muhd Shafie Sharom.
After the breather, KL upped the tempo and harassed the Perak defence and it paid off when Nor Syafiq Sumantri beat Perak's replacement goalkeeper Mohd Amirul Abd Halim to equalise.
Stung by the goal, Perak went on the hunt for another goal but to no avail, and even missed two sitters.
KL, after soaking up all that their opponents could throw at them, produced some thrilling play resulting in Jagveen Singh getting the winning goal two minutes from time.
KL coach Saiful Munir Mansor was thrilled with his charges' performance and said they played according to instructions.
“When we were down by a goal, I was not so worried as it has become a norm that my boys play better under pressure and always come back from behind to win," said Saiful.
"It happened twice in this tournament, in the group match we came from behind to beat Malacca and in the semi-finals we also came from a goal down to beat Selangor in the extra time."
Earlier, Selangor took third spot when they slammed Terengganu 7-0.
RESULTS - Final: Kuala Lumpur 2 Perak 1; 3rd-4th: Selangor 7 Terengganu 0.
Roll of honour - Man of the Match: Jagveen Singh (Kuala Lumpur); Top scorer: Mohd Haikal Zamri -- 13 goals (Selangor); Best goalkeeper: Mohd Amirul Abd Halim (Perak); Player of the Tournament: Nazrulmubin Zebidi (Selangor); Fair play: Perak.
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