Malaysia: National hockey team to go on three week tour of Europe in April
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| Malaysia |
January 1, 2005
The Star Online
BY S. RAMAGURU
KUALA LUMPUR: The national hockey team will go on a three-week tour of Europe in April, including a four-nation tournament in Poland.
The tour will start on April 10 with Holland as the first stop over 10 days. Then, the team will arrange for some matches to be played in either Germany or possibly Belgium.
From April 29 to May 1, they will play in the tournament in Poland before returning home.
Malaysian Hockey Federation (MHF) secretary T. Paramalingam said yesterday that they had accepted two invitations one from the Dutch Hockey Association for the senior team to go on the 10-day tour and another to play in the Poland tournament.
Since there is a nine-day gap between the Holland tour and the Polish meet, we decided that the team should remain in Europe and play some matches in other countries before coming home.
We are trying to arrange the matches in Germany. If we fail to do so, we will try and see if countries like Belgium can accommodate us, he added.
The tour is part of the national team's preparations for the 2006 World Cup qualifiers, which will be held in China.
The Malaysians are currently ranked 11th in the FIH world ranking list. They are in a favourable position to make the cut for the qualifiers, which will involve 12 teams.
The senior team are currently in full-time training and will play four Test matches with Belgium from Jan 21-26. They do not have any other assignments until the Europe tour.
In June, they will take part in the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup, which will be staged in Kuala Lumpur.
The National Juniors, meanwhile, have also received an invitation from the Dutch for a tour in May.
The suggested dates for the Juniors are from May 10-20. What we will do is to send the Juniors earlier to Germany for some matches before going to Holland.
The Junior World Cup will be held in Holland and hopefully the Juniors will get a chance to play at the competition venue, he said.
The National Juniors have yet to qualify for the Junior World Cup as they only finished fourth in the Junior Asia Cup in Karachi last year, failing to win one of the three automatic berths.
The International Hockey Federation (FIH), however, could give Asia a fourth berth. The three Asian teams who have confirmed their places are India, Pakistan and South Korea.
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