The unofficial MHL website in play now

The battle for the MHL supremacy starts on December 17, but for UniKL coach Darren Smith, the past month has been spent on getting his soldiers primed for the arduous task ahead.
Darren, who is also the assistant coach of the New Zealand squad, arrived in Malaysia last month to prepare the UniKL side for the MHL and having spoken to him when he first arrived and after a month of training his charges, one could see the optimism he has for his bunch of youngsters.

Read more...www.tnbmhl.com.my

(THIS IS AN UNOFFICIAL WEBSITE OF THE Malaysia Hockey League, SELF FUNDED WITH NO HELP FROM THE MALAYSIAN HOCKEY FEDERATION)

Punjabi Women's Futsal, Inspiring

TEAM Inspire emerged champions of the inaugural Punjabi Women's Futsal Tournament at the Bandar Baru Sentul Futsal Court on Nov 21.
Inspire walked away with a challenge trophy sponsored by the family of Sardara Singh Sherpura.
Team SNSM finished second while Team Sentul were third.
Manpreet Kaur of Inspire was picked as the player of the tournament.
Ten teams, with players ranging from 12-years-old to 51, participated in the tournament which was jointly organised by Sikh Naujawan Sabha Malaysia (Malaysia Sikh Youth Organisation), Selangor Sikh Union and Tatt Khalsa Diwan.
Organising committee chairman Gurdarshan Singh, who is also the president of Selangor Sikh Union, expressed satisfaction with the turnout.
"This is the first time we have organised this championships and we will do it annually," said Gurdarshan.
He said the main objective of the event was to encourage teamwork, socialising and sportsmanship spirit.

Seven TNB players for Thunderbolt

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).

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."