Malaysia

The Malaysian Hockey Federation have three new players in their 26-member training squad for the Gemilang 2006 programme.

They are Robert Alcantara, Hairul Nizam Abdul Rani and Mohamed Fairuz Ramli.

Midfielder Siaful Azli, who had quit the team last year, is also among those in the squad together with defender K. Gobinathan, who took a break from the national team in June to concentrate on his career.

The team will begin training on Dec 15 under newly-appointed coach Wallace Tan.

In the squad are 15 players who went to Madrid last March for the Olympic qualifying tournament.

The MHF have left out three players – Ismail Abu, Mohamed Shukri Mutalib and Riduan Nasir. They are with the National Juniors who are preparing for the Junior World Cup in June. Malaysia were not among the three confirmed Asian qualifiers for the Junior World Cup and they will only know whether they get to feature in it in February.

The MHF acting secretary, T. Paramalingam, said that the first major assignment for the senior national team would be the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup in June.

“We are in the midst of finalising some tours for the team. We will keep 26 players at all times under the Gemilang programme,” he said.

Two former National Juniors also received the call-up. They are P. Prabhakaran, the Razak Cup top goal scorer, and his KL teammate Jivan Mohan.

Wallace, who is in Lahore to watch the Champions Trophy tournament with the Juniors' coach, Sarjit Singh, said that it was up to the players to decide if they wanted to join the team.

“We have named the best players available to us. The ball is now at the players' feet. They have to inform us if they do not want to join the team. I have not named any reserves because we will only call up replacements based on the position of those who opted out,” he said in a telephone interview.



THE TRAINING SQUAD

Goalkeepers: Roslan Jamaluddin, Mohamed Nasihin Nubli, S. Kumar.

Defenders: S. Kuhan, Mohamed Amin Rahim, Mohamed Madzli Ikmar, K. Gobinathan, Nor Azlan Bakar, Chua Boon Huat, Mohamed Badrul Hisham, Reduan Ponirin.

Midfielders: K. Keevan Raj, K. Logan Raj, Robert Alcantara, Azlan Misron, Jiwa Mohan, P. Prabhakaran, S. Shanker, Jivan Mohan, Norazlan Rahim.

Forwards: Mohamed Rodhanizam, Nishel Kumar, Shaiful Azli, Mohamed Fairuz Ramli, Tajol Rosli, Hairul Nizam Abdul Rani.

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