Malaysian junior hockey players need more exposure at international level - coach

JOHOR BAHRU (Johor), Oct 12 (Bernama) -- The Malaysian national junior hockey team should be given more exposure through international tournaments as part of its preparations for the 2021 Junior World Cup. Its coach Nur Saiful Zaini Nasiruddin said among the tournaments to be focused on was the six-nation Sultan of Johor Cup (SOJC) at the Taman Daya Hockey Stadium in Johor Baru that would begin today until Oct 19. “We need the exposure at the international level such as the SOJC, so that we can make evaluation. We need to take advantage of the six games as it is not easy to get this kind of exposure. “So we have a week to strengthen the players for the qualifying round,” he told Bernama when met ahead of the national junior team opening game against India on Saturday night. He said it was a good preparation for the Junior Asia Cup from June 4-14 next year in Dhaka, Bangladesh, which is the qualifying tournament for the 2021 Junior World Cup. Nur Saiful said for now, he would evaluate the players' performance before they could be selected to represent the country in the world championship. “We have 40 players, aged 17 to 21. So players who are 18 years old, the longer they are playing for the squad, their performance will be better, so we will see their performance at that time,” he said. The national team will open the SOJC campaign against India, followed by Australia on Sunday, New Zealand (Oct 15 ), Great Britain (Oct 16 ) and Japan (Oct 18). -- BERNAMA