Former goalkeeper Nasihin to coach women

PIC: Nasihin Nubli (in blue) will coach the women's team.

FORMER national goalkeeper Nasihin Nubli has been named the chief coach of the national women's senior team, replacing Yahya Atan, who has been promoted to high performance director.

Prior to this appointment, Nasihin had been assisting Yahya since 2007.

Malaysian Women's Hockey Association (MWHA) secretary S. Shamala said Yahya will be in charge of both the national development and the 1MAS programmes.

"Yahya's experience is needed to ensure that the many tiers of national teams are formed and developed for the future," said Shamala yesterday.

"His first assignment will be to mould a national under-21 team for next year's Junior World Cup Qualifiers.

" The association will also work together with the Education Ministry to ensure our grassroot programmes take off well."

Nasihin's first task as the national coach will be the Champions Challenge 2, scheduled for Vienna on May 7-15. Malaysia are drawn in Group B with Belgium, Russia and Belarus while Group A comprises Chile, Canada, Italy and Austria.

Shamala believes the team, who have been in centralised training since last month, are good for the semi-finals.

"The association has arranged friendly matches with clubs from Japan and also national teams from Europe prior to the Champions Challenge 2," she added. -- AJITPAL SINGH

It all boils down to players

COMMENT
By Vijesh Rai

INCENTIVES have been announced, targets set and team officials finalised as the Malaysian Hockey Federation (MHF) eyes the 2012 London Olympics and the urgency is understandable for failure to qualify is not an option, not after having missed the last two Olympics.
Sydney 2000 was Malaysia's last appearance at the Olympics and MHF knows that not joining the world's best in London could well spell the end for the game in the country.
The players -- the main characters in the plot -- must understand this and vow to work hard and cut no corners for if they fail, they will go down in history as part of the reason why Malaysian hockey went from appearing at the highest of stages to disappearing completely.
This doesn't have to happen though for in winning silver at last year's Guangzhou Asian Games, the players proved that there is still hope for the sport but the challenge now is to translate this into brilliance.
It would have been a much easier task had MHF succeeded in securing the hosting of a Qualifier but it wasn't meant to be and the task now is to give undivided attention to sealing a place in London.
Malaysia are still in the dark as to which Qualifier they will play in -- Japan and India will host one each next year while the third has yet to be decided -- but that shouldn't be of concern for none will be easy.
MHF has done well in making early key decisions but that isn't enough for the players need to be pushed and playing in invitational tournaments and friendly matches alone won't be enough.
Sending the players abroad for playing stints with European clubs will help but what will really go a long way in making the task a little bit easier is for them to realise just how crucial it is for Malaysia to qualify for the Olympics.
Hockey is among the luckier sports for it isn't among those who have seen their funding from the National Sports Council reduced but this isn't necessarily a situation MHF will be in forever.
Other sports, including the hugely successful bowling, are having to cope with cuts and if hockey doesn't qualify for the Olympics, it will become increasingly hard for NSC to justify spending huge amounts on it.
More is set to be spent over the next year or so in the build-up to the Olympic Qualifier but the players have to account for the millions of Ringgit that have been budgeted for training, exposure and allowances for the Malaysian taxpayers expect returns on their investment.
MHF president Tengku Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah is leading by example and the fact that he has pledged to also contribute to the incentives announced is proof that he is committed to the MHF cause.
Though there is still room for improvement in the MHF set-up, Tengku Abdullah has done well since assuming the presidency, which has also silenced his doubters who felt that his passion for football would be at the expense of hockey.
Tengku Abdullah has played a key role in trying to bring hockey back to the masses -- the 1Mas Project and the MHL being shown live on Astro being part of the plan to make the sport boom again.
It won't be easy though and the near empty stadiums in which the MHL matches have been played in are proof of that as fans will only return in droves if the national team are successful.
The footballers have shown that this is exactly the case and the Olympic side's qualifier against Pakistan drew a reasonable turnout only because fans have started to believe again after the Laos Sea Games and AFF Cup triumphs.
For their efforts, the footballers have been well rewarded, there is renewed interest in the game and more money has been pledged to ensure the FA of Malaysia continues to progress.
Tengku Abdullah is trying to do the same with MHF but all the good work and pledge of incentives will mean nothing if the national hockey team are not in London come August 2012.
What will be worse is if this results in even more declining interest in the sport.
Only the players can prevent this.

You May Bank on Sapura

KLHC skipper Azlan Misron receiving the League trophy from Malacca governor Tan Sri Khalil Yaakob. Pictures from www.tnbmhl.com.my

SAPURA took it easy against Armed Forces-Airod but still won 5-1 in the final league match at the Premier Division of the Malaysia Hockey League in Malacca yesterday.
However, they might lose an influential player for the quarter-finals stage to the Police force.
Even though the top-three positions were already sealed before the Malacca fixtures, but the quarter-finalists took them seriously as a warm-up.
League champions Kuala Lumpur Hockey Club (KLHC) pocketed RM60,000, second placed Tenaga Nasional RM40,00 and third placed Sapura RM30,000.
There was another winner yesterday, when national No 1 goalkeeper S. Kumar, playing for Tenaga, received an incentive of RM5,000 for being named as the Best Player in Asia by the Asian Hockey Federation recently.
Sapura, 2005 and 2006 Overall champions, have a good chance of reaching the semi-finals as they play Maybank, whom they beat 2-0 and 4-0 in the League.
However, Sapura might feel a void in the knock-out, as national player Jivan Mohan has joined the Police force, and will be reporting for training on March 1.
“Jivan will be reporting for training at the end of the month, and we might lose him for the last-eight. However, we are hoping to get a special release for him, and are keeping our fingers crossed,” said Sapura coach I. Vickneswaran.
Sapura had the better of Maybank in the League but: “Although we beat them on both occasions in the League, I believe the knock-out will be a different match all together. Maybank have the players to cause an upset, and we will not take them lightly.”
KLHC are virtually assured of a semis spot, as they play Bandar Penawar Sports School, while Tenaga Nasional will also have an easy time as they meat Armed Forces Juniors.
The only well balanced match will be between Yayasan Negri Sembilan v UniKL, which might go to the wire.
PREMIER DIVISION: RESULTS -- UniKL 3 UiTm 0, May bank 3 Yayasan Negri Sembilan 5, Sapura 5 Armed Forces- Airod 1, Tenaga Nasional 0 Kuala Lumpur Hockey Club 3.
TNB CUP -- Quarter-finals (first leg): March 4 -- Kuala Lumpur Hockey Club v Bandar Penawar Sports School (Tun RAzak, 4pm), Yayasan Negri Sembilan v UniKL (Tun Razak, 6pm), Sapura v Maybank (Tun Razak, 8pm), Armed Forces Juniors v Tenaga Nasional (KLHA, 5pm).
March 6 (second leg): Tenaga Nasional v Armed Forces Juniors (Tun Razak, 4pm), Maybank v Sapura (Tun Razak, 6pm), UniKL v Yayasan Negri Sembilan (Tun Razak, 8pm), Bandar Penawar Sports School v Kuala Lumpur Hockey Club (KLHA, 5pm).


FINAL STANDINGS

PREMIER DIVISION
P W D L F A Pt
KLHC 16 14 1 1 75 20 43
TNB 16 11 1 4 46 20 34
SAPURA 16 11 0 5 48 29 33
UNIKL 16 9 3 4 30 27 30
YNS 16 8 0 8 49 44 24
MAYBANK 16 4 3 9 21 30 15
NUR INSAFI 16 4 2 10 27 51 14
UITM 16 3 0 13 21 53 9
ATM 16 3 0 13 19 62 9

DIVISION ONE
P W D L F A Pt
ATM JNR 12 9 2 1 31 12 29
BPSS 12 8 0 4 27 19 24
BJSS 12 7 1 4 33 15 22
MALACCA CC 12 5 1 6 16 16 16
IPOH CH 12 4 3 5 19 24 15
USM 12 3 0 9 18 36 9
UNITEN 12 1 3 8 12 34 6

Money for nothing, and chicks for free...

NATIONAL hockey players stand to pocket at least RM20,000 each if they qualify for the London 2010 Olympics.
The Malaysian Hockey Federation (MHF) council yesterday endorsed this barrel of cookies as an added incentive, as Malaysia last played in the Sydney 2000 Olympics.
“The council today (yesterday) endorsed RM1,000 per player for each win in the Olympics Qualifier, and if Malaysia qualify, there is an added RM15,000 bonus for each player,” said MHF secretary Maninderjit Singh after MHF held their council meeting in Malacca yesterday.
MHF will foot 50 per cent of the incentive bill, while the remainder will come from their president Tengku Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah.
And there is also a major change in the coaching structure, as Tai Beng Hai was elevated from assistant to his old post of chief coach for the senior side.
Stephen van Huizen was elevated to National Team Co ordinator and Coaching Chief.
“Stephen will also play the role of team manager when none is available, but the selection still lies with the various age-group coaches,” said Maninderjit.
Beng Hai’s assistant will be Nor Saiful Zaini, while the team managers appointed are George Koshy and M. Gobinathan.
MHF also set targets to achieve, with the first is to finish top-four in the Azlan Shah Cup, and then top-five in the Champions Challenge in South Africa.
Mirnawan Nawawi will remain as team manager and advisor for the 2013 Project Squad, while the coaches will be K. Dharmaraj, K. Gobinathan and Nor Azlan Bakar.
As for the 2017 team, Paul Lissek will be the consultant, while the chief coach will be Lim Chiow Chuan, assisted by Lailin Abu Hassan.
The council also set clear national team Code-of-Conduct with specific punishment for abuse of drugs, and getting involved in betting and gaming syndicates.

BPSS seal last quarter spot

BANDAR Penawar Sports School (BPSS) completed the TNB Cup quarter-finals line-up when they edged Army Juniors 3-2 in Division One of the Malaysia Hockey League.
Playing at the Tun Razak Stadium, BPSS made a late surge in the last four minutes of the match to seal a spot in the last- eight but it came with a hefty price of playing Premier Division champions Kuala Lumpur Hockey Club.
Bukit Jalil Sports School, who were hoping BPSS fumble and hand them the quarters ticket, beat UNiTen 6-1 but their dreams were shattered.
The other quarter-finals line-up is between Tenaga Na sional-Armed Forces Juniors, Sapura-Maybank and Yayasan Negri Sembilan-UniKL.
The first leg will be on March 4 while the return leg on March 6, with three matches at the Tun Razak Stadium, and one at the KLHA Stadium.
BPSS coach Wan Roslan said now that they have achieved their target, they will play to keep the score down.
“Our target was to play in the last-eight and qualify for the Premier Division next season and we achieved it. And now, we will play top keep the score down, as KLHC are in the league of their own,” admitted Roslan.
The other lopsided quarter-finals will be between Tenaga Nasional and Armed Forces Juniors.
Army won nine, drew two and lost only one in Division one, but they are a poor mismatch against Charity Shield holders Tenaga.
“We need to buck up in defense, as our four defeats were the result of poor marking. And we can’t afford that against a team like KLHC.”
BPSS took the lead off Syafik Nordin in the third minute, but then let in two quick goals which were scored by Junaidi Ghazali in the 55th and Khairi Mansor in the 60th minute.
However, a fight-back in the 64th minute saw Amir Zulkarnain equalising, while Afzanizam Zakaria scord the winner for BPSS in the 67th minute.
Today, the Premier Division teams will complete their fixtures in Malacca, but all the matches have no bearing, except for the KLHC-TNB match.
KLHC lost the Charity Shield to TNB, their only defeat this season, and it could turn into a sizzling affair.
DIVISION ONE -- Results: Bukit Jalil Sports School 6 UniTen 1, Armed Forces Juniors 2 Bandar Penawar Sports School 3.
PREMIER DIVISION: TODAY -- UniKL v UiTm (5pm), Maybank v Yayasan Negri Sembilan (4pm), Sapura v Armed Forces-Airod (6pm), Tenaga Nasional v Kuala Lumpur Hock ey Club (8pm).
* All matches at the Malacca Stadium.

PREMIER DIVISION
P W D L F A Pt
KLHC 15 13 1 1 72 20 40
TNB 15 11 1 3 46 17 34
SAPURA 15 10 0 5 43 28 30
UNIKL 15 8 3 4 27 27 27
YNS 15 7 0 8 44 41 21
MAYBANK 15 4 3 8 18 25 15
NUR INSAFI 16 4 2 10 27 51 14
UITM 15 3 0 12 21 50 9
ATM 15 3 0 12 18 57 9

DIVISION ONE
P W D L F A Pt
ATM JNR 12 9 2 1 31 12 29
BPSS 12 8 0 4 27 19 24
BJSS 12 7 1 4 33 15 22
MALACCA CC 12 5 1 6 16 16 16
IPOH CH 12 4 3 5 19 24 15
USM 12 3 0 9 18 36 9
UNITEN 12 1 3 8 12 34 6